Happy Post Celebration-Of-Your-Choice, folks! Now we move towards the New Year. But not before a little post-Christmas fallout.

A friend sent me an article on Lingerie Barbie: "Barbie exudes a flirtatious attitude in her heavenly merry widow bustier ensemble accented with intricate lace and matching peek-a-boo peignoir." [FAO Schwarz 2002 catalog.] Well, you should see the articles about this one! It's as if the death of littlegirlhood has finally come to America. Deborah Roffman at Newsday; Jim Sollisch in Jewish World Review; Lisa Suhay in Christian Science Monitor; spinline.net; John Stossel at abcnews.com; and more. Everyone saying she looks like a hooker.

Ladies and gentlemen, may I have your attention please? News flash: it's a DOLL. She's not a prostitute any more than she's an astronaut or President of the United States (although come to think of it, she may be a better candidate than the current incumbent. At least she wants world peace.)

But my favourite discovery in all the searching was this gem: Pregnant Midge! She and all of the Mattel "Happy Family" group (including husband Alan) have been pulled from all the WalMart shelves in the United States. And they say they like to promote family values at WalMart. For shame. I mean, Midge even has a little white wedding band...

Hope you're having a happy holiday! L8tr...
posted by Dana Lee at 1:23 PM

Cool Yule, everyone!
Even if you're not of the Christian persuasion, take the holiday and enjoy. Go out for a walk, commune with Nature at her most hibernatorial time of the year (okay, I just made that word up, it's not in Oxford's...) Whatever you do, have fun and hang out with your friends, families, g/b-friends...and even in some cases your loved ones! :-)
Other website news: I killed the OpenBlog, it was a nice idea but it never really went anywhere. As well, you'll find that in the New Year this year's blog entries won't be on this page, you'll have to click on the Archives link at the top of the page to see those. I like to start the New Year with fresh blogging and blathering. And I found another example of confusing consumerism. Click on the picture on the left, read the ad and then ask yourself: is this convincing me to buy the product? "Inventing the beauty of tomorrow." Hmm.
And with that thought, I'll leave you for a few days. Enjoy your time off, in whatever way you want to celebrate!
L8tr...
posted by Dana Lee at 9:23 AM

Okay, a little bit of social commentary for all of you today. First, check out the picture to the left. I grabbed this one in the elevator in my apartment building. First, I guess I'm getting a little tired of having adverts shoved in my face wherever I go. Some of them are actually cute or funny so, okay, it's good for a laugh - the first two times. Then it gets annoying. Apparently somebody in my building got a little tired of it, too. Nice commentary, whoever you are. The day after I snapped this, they changed the poster. Hmm...

Second, can anybody out there why we need at least NINE different types of tinned pasta cut into the shapes of ScoobyDoo, Bart Simpson, Pokemon, Arthur, Rugrats, and...wait for it...Bob the Builder??? This is all getting a little out of hand, HeinzCo. I grabbed this (composite picture - all the tins wouldn't fit on the shelf at once!) while I was shopping in Dominion the other day. Sheesh.

The webstats are updated again. No news there, really, but as always the google searches that land people here are fun. People are finding the Wiccan Barbie parody, apparently. My favourites this month: barbie and denmark and pictures and porn and this gem hercules or porn dana lee -ling. Huh?
posted by Dana Lee at 11:02 PM

I'm back!

I finished the last of the marking today! Second year students can now find their term paper marks online, along with a tally of their final grade from my class. Remember, you guys - my mark is combined with Don's and Rick's Production Theory marks, so if you didn't do super well in my lecture, you have a chance to improve your mark via your work with them.
[The preceding was an unpaid announcement. We now continue with our regularly scheduled blogging...]

Kirstin's been really great during my marking hell - actually, she's got final exams this week in her courses, so we've been commiserating together for a while now. One of us reads Marketing or Statistics, the other one reads 100 mid-term papers, or watches third year teleproduction for marking. Ah, romance...the couple that does schoolwork together, stays together. Or something like that.

Okay, so I have a life again. I've got more Buffy and Angel episodes to watch than you can believe (I think at last count, I had four VHS tapes, and those are recorded at slow speed - it's gonna be one hell of a BuffyFest in the next couple of weeks.) Of course, Yule is quickly coming upon us (that's Christmas for some of you out there) and I shopped 'til I dropped at the One Of A Kind show - twice. I'm going to start back into novel writing in the next few weeks, too. And there's some other interesting freelance thingies in the works, but nothing's finalised yet, so I'll save those little chocolately good rumours for another entry. Maybe more Pictures of the Week will magickally appear, too. Who knows?

Anyway, thought I'd drop you a line to let you know that I'm back in the works, so expect to see entries in the 'blog more frequently from now on.

Have fun, keep bundled up from the cold, you know how bad those chilblains can get!

L8tr...
posted by Dana Lee at 1:13 AM

Here's that Picture of the Week I promised you last night. Hopefully I'll have more time to mess around with the digital camera in the next few weeks. Now, back to work...more MARKING!

L8tr...
posted by Dana Lee at 5:21 PM

Okay, I'm not dead. Really I'm not. I've just had a crazy busy month in my life!

RyersonLife is wonderful, but now the snowfall of marking has arrived and deposited its special droppings (read: papers) on my apartment floor. There's a lot of it, inches of papers in fact. I'm hoping to break the back of it over the next few days and into the weekend. Third year students, hopefully your marks will be online soon. Second year TV tech folks, you'll still have to wait a bit. I'm only one guy!

So, I guess I better 'fess up. There's more. I've got a new squeeze. We've known each other for a couple of years at our local pub, the Dodger, and one thing has led to another. Who knew? Very cool woman. She's totally understanding of this weird Wiccan guy who writes these odd 'blogs (and has an even more peculiar website featuring Barbies and Goddess knows what else, which she's surfed all over, I'm sure! :-) ). And she's wonderfully one of a kind, too. Smart, funny, intuitive, and need I say it very attractive? Okay, okay. I'm over the moon, I admit it. Before I make all of you gag, I'll stop now. But let's just say it's all good. She and I have been hanging around together a lot, and well, that's taken a little bit of my time too, shall we say. :-)

The webstats software got messed up last month (October) for some reason, and the only way to get it running again was to move the entire domain to a new server, so if the domain was missing from the Web for a few days last week that's why. Sorry 'bout the interruption. Did you know I have almost 50 megs of stuff on this? Jeez, wotta pain in the ass. If some pages look weird or don't have proper links or navigation buttons or banners, please ? Thanks.

So, there's not really all that much news. It's been teach; hang out with Kirstin; sleep. Lather, rinse, repeat - for about a month. I haven't even done much photography lately, although I'll post a new Picture of the Week very soon - I've had one on the computer for about two weeks now, but have been two busy to even update that webpage. For shame.

Okay, I'm gonna post this sucka so you'll all know I still exist. Have fun!

L8tr...
posted by Dana Lee at 8:36 PM

Some fun Pictures of the Week are now online. As usual, click on the picture here to go to that page. I went to mom and dad's last weekend, and took a walk down the back alley for a smoke (No, they don't know. They also don't know I'm Pagan, but that's a whole other 'blog entry.) Anyway, found some interesting things to take pics of, so enjoy the new mini-gallery.

Work continues to be insane at Ryerson. Love ya, student-dom, but you ever tried to have a personal life while marking every night? I've got it figured out. I head to the Dodger for dinner and ginger ale (what, you think I'd drink while marking papers? Shame on you.) It beats holing up in this one-room apartment, let me tell you. Actually, I don't know how students do it - full time classes and studies, working part time, trying to have a social life. Ecch. Any of you guys who can balance all of that, more credit to you. Oh, and don't tell me you're not reading this 'blog. I know you are (I have the webstats package on this domain, don't forget.) The students can get their marks for my second year TechTheory course on this domain, and they have a little mini-gallery of cool sketches they did in the margins of the question sheet - check it out.

Okay, you're right. I have no life. Bah. Well, back to marking. L8tr...
posted by Dana Lee at 9:40 PM

Okay, so it's been another long while since I wrote. Sorry, but Ryerson has been totally squirrely lately. I keep having Practicum proposals drop on my lap, several at a time, each one 1/2 - 1" thick. Hey Practicum gangs, they're all great, keep up the good work. I'm really looking forward to seeing these projects come to fruition over the next several months. And this week I start hanging out with the third year studio lab groups, looking forward to doing our live television specials and a whole bunch of featurettes with you guys, too. Whatever will I do in November when things calm down a little more? Probably get back to writing the novel, which I've been quite lax about lately. There's only so many hours in a day, though.

Personal life? Who has a personal life? :-/

Hey Buffy fans: great season opener, wasn't it? Things just keep happening in ol' Sunnydale, don't they? Never a dull moment. What will become of Willow? And Dawn's started high school. I don't even want to start to figure out Spike, all in good time.

More later when I come up for air again...
posted by Dana Lee at 9:36 PM

Hey girls, there's a new Barbie in town - Wiccan Barbie! Click on the picture to find out more about her!

posted by Dana Lee at 9:29 PM

Geez, so that's what that feels like.

I just got back from workout and it's not even 9 a.m. yet. The whole concept of getting up at 6 a.m. to go to the gym is still pretty foreign to me. I mean, the sun isn't even getting up at that hour. But I have to admit, as you pass by the city's labour force slogging to work around 8:15 on your way back, you feel pretty virtuous.

And this, from a guy who up until recently wasn't going to sleep until later than that - ah, those were the days of typing in an e-chat, "Hey, I really *have* to jet soon and catch some zzz's" as I watched the sky get lighter, and lighter, and lighter.

Really need a cuppa joe though. l8tr...
posted by Dana Lee at 8:56 AM

Just logged into Sara's blog. Blogging: the new way to communicate en masse with everybody. She had this amazing link to a place that lets you make Lego-like people. Check it out! I made a Lego Barbie (pictured on the left, click for a bigger view.)

I don't know what was in my mind, but I booked my next workout with my trainer for 7 AM Friday morning! Actually, I do know...all the other times were taken with her schedule and mine. Ungh. 7 a.m., lifting weights and doing cardio. Actually, at least it means by 9 a.m. I've done my workout for the day. I'll try it on Monday and Wednesday too, and see how it feels. Who knows? It could be a whole new morning lifestyle for me.

l8tr...
posted by Dana Lee at 6:10 PM

Well, this is a kick! You want to have a laugh? Click on the picture on the left. It will take you to Ryerson's website, and a particular page where you can watch a thing they're calling the Ryerson Movie. It's a publicity video, directed, shot, edited and voice-overed by yours truly. Gee, I'm famous. I knew they were digitizing it to post it, but I just got around to looking at it this evening.

L8tr...
posted by Dana Lee at 8:06 PM

Okay, that's it. I'm convinced we in Toronto somehow moved to California in the middle of the night, and nobody noticed. Or maybe Australia. Yeah, that's it. I wake up this morning a little woozy from the previous night's debauchery (thank you, Zoe and company!), think "Frig, it's hot in here!", pull open the blinds and see this (click on the pic for a bigger view.) Forty-two degrees, on my balcony, at 10 in the friggin' morning? Jeezuz, maybe there is something to this whole global warming theory after all...
posted by Dana Lee at 9:25 PM

And yet another new picture of the week. I was walking by the old Hotel Isabella the other day (actually I walk by it a lot, the No Frills is pretty much next door.) Someone's finally bought the old lady and is renovating it. It'll be cool to see what they turn it into. The hoarding sez "The Nu Hotel Isabella" so presumably they're gonna keep it at least as a pub, and maybe a place to crash as well. Anyway, here's the front door as it stands right now, still pretty much the way it was when they closed the place years ago.

School's started, and the NRG during frosh week is contagious. Every year, I swear it's my last year teaching at Rye, and every year I seem to come back there. This is my 8th year (!) if you count the part-time stuff.

Not much novelling lately, more journal writing though. I got hit on by this woman in the pub on Friday, and that made me wonder once again about relationships. In my time of voluntary celibacy right now, I'm wondering if that isn't an escape from intimacy? Ouch, not something I want to hear. But maybe that's okay. Are there times in our lives when intimacy is maybe unhealthy for us, not the best thing for us at that point in our life's path? We've all heard friends (and maybe even ourselves) say, after a breakup usually, "That's IT! I've had it up to here! I'm not dating anybody. I just want to be by myself for a while!" Gad, this blog is starting to sound more and more like Josey Vogels' site My Messy Bedroom. Check it out if you haven't already.

Anyway, got lots of journal updating to do, so see ya l8tr...
posted by Dana Lee at 2:51 PM

Hi, I've been busy so haven't put anything on the 'blog lately. School starts on Tuesday, so I expect all you RTA students to come surfing by! There's a new picture of the week (click on the pic to the left to go to that area of the domain.)

The August webstats are up. Not really much news there, just more people surfin' by. The usual BarbieTwins searchers, a few more bits of weirdness. Google hasn't been by lately, and it's getting dull *sigh*.

I'm on volume 9 of the journals, translating them into conversations. I must have at least 50 pages of novel done, but how it's all going to glue together in the end, I haven't the foggiest. I'll keep plugging away at them while I'm teaching - I have a couple days off a week (except for October), so there's room to do that, workout, and teach. And keep sane.

Hope you're having a great Labour Day weekend!
L8tr...
posted by Dana Lee at 11:00 PM

I went to the Canadian National Exhibition today. I needed a day off from the writing, and a day to take pictures, people watch, and generally lose myself in the crowd. Literally. So, of course there's a batch of pictures in Picture of the Week. They're not art, but they sort of capture the essence of the place. Click on the picture to the left and check 'em out. L8tr...
posted by Dana Lee at 10:07 PM

I just read all the other entries in this 'blog. Geez, I can blather on. Noticed one significant thing in the April 23rd entry, something about me being in a relationship at the time. Most of you know this already but alas, that ended in late May. So I've been soloing...a singleton...all through this wacky summer of 2002 (about which, it seems, I've written volumes.) I guess that's what prompted me to rant in the openblog about relationships. [Editor's note: openblog is no longer...] Nobody's emailed me for a while to add their 2 cents' worth about that somewhat important part of our lives. So either you're all reading and lurking, or not in a rant mood, which is okay. I'm actually pretty content these days, which has been why I've stopped ranting about it, too. I do believe there are times when you are meant to be in a relationship, and times when it's right to move on as a complete independent. The "fun factor" of life is that we can't know in advance when meter is going to be running, or when it's "off duty", relationship-wise. Some people find that really annoying, and end up not wanting to trust diving into the deep end of their next relationship, because they've been hurt, or deceived. But I think when the time's right, we have to keep checking out the scene. Never give up. But only if our own house is completely in order first (which, for example, I don't think mine is just yet, too much undecided stuff yet.)

Oh. I guess I am still ranting a bit about this, aren't I...
posted by Dana Lee at 3:39 PM

And here's another Picture of the Week. I haven't done too many lately, so this is "bonus week". I took this one at the bar last night around 2 a.m. All the glasses were just stacked around the Rickard's tap, and it just seemed like one of those "end of the night" shots. I never know what's going to catch my eye - glad I had the camera handy. I just love how well it works in available light situations. Enjoy!

PS: a special *Hi* to everyone who's checking in because of all the business cards I gave out at last night's beer-fest at Pauper's. Have fun looking around this wacky place! And pass the word on to others who remember me from our Ryerson RTA days, okay? L8tr...
posted by Dana Lee at 3:15 PM

Got a new Picture of the Week up tonight. This is my apartment hallway...nice isn't it? (okay, they're painting it, I don't know why, it looked fine before, I guess it's another excuse to jack up the rent like they did this year, sheesh.) Sorry, I just read one of those blathering 'blogs that are written by very depressed people, it's kinda contagious...L8tr...
posted by Dana Lee at 9:43 PM

Just got the August issue of Q Magazine, and I'm in it. Well, my tent is, at least. Play the game of Find My Tent! Click on the picture to the left to get started...
posted by Dana Lee at 6:05 PM

It's getting there, but it isn't going too quickly. The problems are all internal: I'm sick of the heat, and I'm unmotivated because it isn't a "real job", so I'm probably just letting the hours and days meander by more than perhaps I should be. But hey, I have to realise it's a matter of balancing the fun and the work. Here's a picture of this afternoon's writing session on the balcony. Listen carefully and you can hear the hissing of summer lawns (thanks Joni Mitchell for that line.) I haven't lost my sense of humour, either. Here are a couple of "Fisher" cartoons I found pasted in the journal from around 1997.
L8tr...
posted by Dana Lee at 6:28 PM

Yep, it's begun. To get warmed up, I put some revisions on a several page piece I worked on last fall. As a little taste of what you can expect, head over to the CFH website (I use the acronym all the time for The Care and Feeding of Happiness). All the pictures from the world trip are there too, if you're interested. Just follow the links to the new novel material, called "Colin's Background". Have fun, give me feedback if you want (Do you like it? It stinks? ...)
posted by Dana Lee at 9:25 PM

Okay, now the writing begins. If you're wondering whether I'm making all this up and I'm just a slack-ass, check out the pictures. These are the annotated, Post-It'd versions of seven years' worth of journals. Hmm, could be one or two ideas floating around in there, don'tcha think? It's been a great journey, with a lot of reliving and kinda messing up my head in the process, but well worth it. I think there's a novel in here. We'll see, we'll see.

L8tr...
posted by Dana Lee at 8:25 PM

New Picture of the Week just up - it's a bit goth, but as I note on the page, I was kinda in a mood when I did it. Enjoy?

posted by Dana Lee at 7:09 PM

Just tried something different today. I knew the locksmiths were coming around to change the locks on every door in my apartment building. So, I set up the DanaCam to "time lapse" mode and I managed to capture him at five second intervals doing his thing. Pretty good - he changed the locks completely in 12 minutes flat! This guy's good. If you want to see the clip, click on the picture to the left and that will take you to the new DanaCam Exclusives page. Note, the clip is 1.6 megs, so you might only want to do this if you have highspeed, or a few moments to wait for it to download (the Exclusives page doesn't take that long, just the clip if you click on the thumbnail within that page.)

Enjoy!
posted by Dana Lee at 3:21 PM

The web stats are up for July, just finished them. Interesting: July was a quieter month in terms of sheer hits, but the actual volume of kbytes moved through the server was higher, and there are many more places hitting on the site, worldwide. Conclusion? Fewer people are visiting this past month, but are surfing further and deeper into the domain, from more places.

Oh, and 35% of all hits from outside search engines were for some derivative of "Barbie Twins". Scary, very scary.

August'll be quiet, too, but wait until September when the students come back to school and start wandering around the place...
posted by Dana Lee at 8:18 PM

Oi, it's been a busy week.
The webcam software never did come back, so I bought a Backpack(TM) 40 gigabyte external USB hard drive ($300), backed up everything on the computer and FORMATTED C:\! A day later of installation, and the computer runs like a top, the webcam is back, and I have the peace of mind of having all my precious work on a backup. So I guess the Goddess was telling me to get my act together and organise my computer better. It's nice to be back.
My birthday (07/30) was, for a change, relaxing. A walk around town, do nothing sort of day, watching the world go by and wondering what I should do next in my life, post novel, post Ryerson. I'm not quite "at the post" but I'm definitely "off". Always looking ahead, I guess.
The novel writing continues, but it's a slog because of having to read 20 journals to get the ideas. I have probably about 200 Post-Its(TM) flagging various thoughts through the years, and I'm not quite done reading them yet. Problem is that you're re-living your life as you go through them, so you can't just plow through them. Julia sez it's because I'm re-syncing to the vibratory frequencies I had when I wrote them. She may be right, but also it's just that you can't go through too much of this at a sitting, because the memories are so strong, it's simply exhausting. I can do about a journal a night (a couple of hours' worth) and then I'm bagged. Soon I'll start the writing...soon.

Anyway, the cam's up (intermittently, at left for a pic and the link), so click by if you want to see me at work.

...Dana
posted by Dana Lee at 5:29 PM

The book writing has begun in earnest. I'm in the midst of going through seven years and 20 journals' worth of personal history to try and find the bits and pieces that will, in some way, form the basis of The Care and Feeding of Happiness.
I had intended to have the DanaCam up a lot for this work, but I foolishly tried to install new webcam software for Spotlife, and it crashed the computer, big time. Things are working fine again, except for the webcam software! Grrr. I know, I know, my own damn fault. I should have left well enough alone. The tech support folks at Logitech are being really helpful, but, alas, unsuccessful. When things get rolling again (I have faith that they will), you'll be able to watch the process once again. I'll let you know when that happens.
I tried something else on the Personal Pages. There's a nice link to the google search engine, and they'll allow you to do a search of just this domain, as well as the whole WWW. The search of my domain depends on the google-bot coming by often enough to keep things updated. Hey, waddaya want, it's free. I'm hoping that by subscribing to this service, their bot will be by a little more frequently than usual. So there's benefits for me as well. Right now, for example, they haven't found all the cool Glastonbury 2002 pictures and stuff, so I'm hoping that they surf by and check 'em out.
posted by Dana Lee at 5:30 PM

We got ourselves a serious lightning and thunderstorm tonight in ol' T.O. I managed to grab this picture with the digital camera just now. Cool!

posted by Dana Lee at 11:20 PM

This is NOT cool.
My wonderful 4-month-old NEC 17" monitor just crapped out the other day - check the picture. For those of you who are thinking "Well, just adjust the pincushion or the width controls", well, THEY DON'T WORK ANYMORE. It's fubar. The only way I was able to get this on the screen was to go into my ATI video card and *seriously* mess with the width settings. It's pretty awful. And, of course, I can't find the friggin' receipt anyplace to use the warranty. Fortunately, I went to the nice folks at Future Shop today (Yonge St. and Gould store) and they found me on their computer and so they'll honour the warranty. I'll take it in tomorrow, and scam a spare from someplace until it's repaired. So I guess this is a plug for Future Shop (like they need my promotion), but hey, ya gotta give credit where it's due. I'm going to be doing a LOT of writing on this computer in the next few weeks, and the width thing couldn't come at a worse time. If nothing else, I think the Goddess was telling me to stay away from the computer for the weekend. And so I have (by and large... :-) )
L8tr...
posted by Dana Lee at 10:52 PM

Hot enough for you? Eeesh, this is getting out of hand. To keep it in perspective, Zoe described Arizona to me last week: "Turn up your oven to 150 Fahrenheit. Stick your head in there. Now live in it." Admittedly, we're only up to about 100 F (40 C on my balcony, at least), so I suppose I shouldn't really bitch. But I came home tonight to find the Barbie girls were definitely trying to get more comfortable (see picture). With a .jpg name like Hot Barbies, who knows what the porn surfers will find now, eh? :-)

I've done all the dictating tape transcribing from Glastonbury, so tomorrow I hit the journals (some of them dating back to 1995) and we'll see where this goes.

I'm using the DanaCam a lot during these writing days, so have a look-see (just click on the third picture) to find out whether I'm online or not.

L8tr.
posted by Dana Lee at 1:50 AM

Hey there, it's kinda late tonight (Sunday 1 a.m.) but thought I'd put up a quick post to let you know what's been goin' on since I got back. Honestly, I've been busy. I'm teaching this weekend at Rye High, so there's not much time to do anything else. Plus, I got food poisoning on Thursday night, so I'm a little behind the eight ball (ever have one of those days?) I feel like such a wimp - Zoe's in town but only until Sunday, and I haven't had nearly enough time to hang with her and the gang. Bleah.

Hope you're enjoying the GlastonburyFest site . Next week I'll start transcribing some of those notes from the 'Fest, and the new excerpts from the novel will be online soon, too.

Yeah, I know I haven't put up a "Picture of the Week" in a while. But...hello? There's tons of new pix on the GlastonburyFest site, so you can't really complain. I'll fire up the DigitalDanaCam soon and show you more goodies. Meanwhile, I borrowed a neg/slide scanner from Harry, and jeezuz, is it ever neat. It's like seeing pictures I took 25 years ago for the first time. SOO cool. If there are pix that I don't have up here already, I'll upload them and let you know...here, in the Danablog, of course!

I'd like to say hi to some of the areas of the world and people who are surfing the site. Portland, Oregon (you know who you are, hi Michael!); the gang at ChumCity (3 hits lately, so don't hide, I know you're out there); Costa Rica (hi, Sherry!); and people from Ottawa, Ryerson, England, Denmark, and more (hey, who's at the Toronto Star anyway? ) While I'm in the mood, I really want to thank Chris in Bristol, Sarah in Southampton and Karen in London (even though I couldn't hang with her this time around) for being so awesomely accomodating during my recent stay in England. You guys all ROCK! You are the best.

Oh, I've noticed that most have you have discovered that the DanaLife blog is *the* place to get the first-hand information about what's new (28 visits in just 13 days). Hardly anybody goes to the main PersonalPages page anymore. Which is fine, I'll *always* post updates here, first. So you've come to the right place. Stay tuned for more later...

I'm thinking of starting a multi-person blog here, which means you'd be able to post your replies to stuff I'm up to, or you're up to, or what you think, right here on this website. I'll check into how easy that is and let you know. We'll have our own mini-bulletin board here, to yammer about whatever strikes us. Now *that* is something worth working on.

Meanwhile, the novel. Yes, yes, I know...the novel. Soon...I promise.

G'night everyone...more news next week.
posted by Dana Lee at 1:22 AM

Okay, well, that was a bloody slog. But, there's now about 10 MEGS of pictures and goodies available online from the Glastonbury Festival. Check it out, and let me know what you think.
As well, the June, 2002 webstats are now online. Hey, to all you people searching from around the world. When you typed up "Barbietwins" in your search engine, what did you *think* you were going to get....the Barbietwins porn sisters? Boy, are you in for a surprise.I bought a "Kym" doll while I was in England. Who's Kym? One of the PopStars, of course. You can't get them over here (the dolls, I mean.) I've now somehow managed to end up with four poseable dolls. So much for the BarbieCam - it's now more like the "Who the hell are all those in the background?-Cam". Here's a peek at who's populating my bookcase these days.
I'm now starting to write the novel, I penned several pages while on the road in England, and a bunch of journal notes, too. Coming soon: more excerpts from the Care and Feeding of Happiness novel (and you thought they were *never*going to be posted, eh?) This is the summer where I plow through the first draft of the book, so stay tuned for lots of excerpts and goodies in the next couple of months.
L8tr...
posted by Dana Lee at 1:14 AM

Hello once again from Bristol. I just got back from Pilton, England, home of the Glatsonbury Festival. What can I say but ABSOLUTELY AWESOME! I've never seen anything quite like it. Basically, a city of about 120,000 people forms on Worthy Farm (about 800-900 acres, pictures are coming soon), and all the infrastructure that comes with it - water, sewage treatment (there's a plant on the farm, and it's fed by slurry truck from the dozens and dozens of portable toilets and urinals spread around the site - thought I'd share that little TMI with you...). There are about 700 stalls, selling everything from food of all kinds to clothing, jewellry, a zillion different things, really. The whole farm is licensed 24/7 so the drinking appears to start around 9:30 am (those crazy English) and never really stops. You can also buy illicit drugs, but of course those are illegal, so I'm sure nobody purchased such things. The �1M security fencing worked, and the gatecrashers were kept out. The result was that the place actually maintained its infrastructure for the paying customers, and the infamous tent pillaging (read: stealing) and general crime was down by 70%. Which means the gatecrashers were the troublemakers in the first place - surprise. Michael Eavis is ecstatic with the result of this year's festival, and it's practically guaranteed there'll be one next year. Hmm, anybody care to join me next time? :-)

The weather was great for England - cloudy with sunny periods every day (high 20 C) except Sunday evening when things seriously clouded over and the rain came. Hardly a mudbath, more a drizzly shower through the later evening.

The bands are amazing (I got in the middle of the mosh pit for No Doubt, getting somewhat crushed towards the front, and spattered with beer and water from the crowd - such fun!). Saw Rod Stewart as the show finale last night on the main stage, and earlier that evening Issac Hayes (Hello, Chef!), and Rogers Waters (former Pink Floyd), who did basically a best-of Pink Floyd show for about 90 minutes - awesome. Saw some other cool jazz bands, some acoustic stuff (Robert Plant on the acoustic stage???), and generally partied my...er...well, had a great time.

Stay tuned here after I get back - there are loads of pictures coming, some new drafted novel excerpts, and lots more. I get back Thursday night. (Tomorrow and Wednesday, I'm hoping to spend a couple of days with some other friends here in England) There's lots more to tell, and I'll try and get some special web pages going asap (probably on the weekend.)

Hope things are well in Canada and elsewhere!
posted by Dana Lee at 9:43 AM

Hi from Bristol, England! Just a quick update before I head down to the Festival tomorrow. I got my ticket yesterday (thanks, Darren!) so I can now officially enter the Festival site. I'm already over the jet lag, too. Did last minute shopping today in Bristol, good to see Chris again, but time to head out. I'll be back in Bristol sometime on Monday so maybe I can give you a quick thumbnail sketch of how it all went, when I come back here.
PS: Yeah, I really *do* want to move here someday!
L8tr...
posted by Dana Lee at 9:59 AM

I just went to the Glastonbury Festival site today to get the stage performance lineup. It's going to be amazing! I had to print the whole thing out for me to take on the trip, so while I was at it, I stuck it in my Glastonbury Festival pre-game warmup site [Editor's note: site now offline, go here instead...] and see for yourself. Just a couple of names you might know: Nelly Furtado, No Doubt, Ani DiFranco, Rod Stewart, Rogers Waters, Issac Hayes, Garbage, and so on, and that's just on the two main stages. There's jazz, acoustic, dance, new bands, "Avalon" and "Experience" stages, too. Woo-hoo!
I'm basically packed and ready to go, just a few more things to pick up today, and one last workout at the gym. Gotta run, let's see if I get a chance to write from an internet cafe while I'm over there.
Before I go, I want to say a special hello to those of you who are surfing the domain from far away (you know who you are): Bournemouth, UK; Costa Rica; Hamilton, ON; Ottawa, ON; and others.
posted by Dana Lee at 11:11 AM

Wow, that week went fast! Some updates to this site:
* There's a big Glastonbury Festival area now online, head to the PersonalPages and follow the button that sez Glastonbury Festival (duhhh...).
* New Pictures of the Week are online, most from WiccanFest last weekend. There's no pictures of people, because I respect the request of the organisers that no pictures be taken of people without their permission. It was a bit of a WiccanMudFest, but we pagans know that rain is one of the four elements, so we would duck under cover for the big downpours, then get back out and dance in the sunshine when it came out. Neat to see 300 or so people, and really none of them upset about the wet weather. Blessed be!
That's about it for now. Maybe I'll get a chance to post one more entry to the blog before I go, otherwise, look forward to stories and pictures when I get back!
posted by Dana Lee at 5:53 PM

* Enjoying the weather? Isn't is great? Summer has finally arrived. :-) Blessed be!
* So, it's official. I got the plane ticket to London (sheesh, the days of cheap airfares to England are over!), contacted Chris in Bristol, and also "Darren" in Bristol, who has my ticket to the Glastonbury Festival. So that's about it. Time to yank out the nylon sack and remember how to do this backpacking thing. I've already got some much needed info from my friend in Bristol - the Festival tends to be a mud-fest (Woodstock, anybody?) and there are stories told of people leaving the Fest with practically nothing at the end...because they couldn't find their tent again! I've been warned...
* Before that though, I"ll be taking a weekend to relax and retreat at the Wic-Can Fest. Fun and merriement abounde this summer.
* Get outside, take a walk, enjoy all that the Goddess has given us!
posted by Dana Lee at 2:59 PM

Lots has been going on in the past few days:
* The May web domain statistics are up now. Click here to check them out. There's been an interesting bit of traffic from around the world since sent their 'bot around to peek at the domain. Interesting stuff here - check it out.
* I finished the music video. It looks really good, and when I can finally release it, I'll show you an excerpt or two on this site. So, stay tuned - something to look forward to.
* I'm going to the Glastonbury Festival in England, the last weekend in June. I got a ticket on ebay, so all I have to do now is contact my friends in England...and, oh yeah, get a plane ticket. I'll be gone for about a week and half in total. I'll have lots of pictures and info to put on the site when I'm back. Something else to look forward to.
* I joined a gym and got myself a personal trainer. Ana's great, and gives me much needed guidance. I'm tired of being out of shape! I'm expecting I'll be in much better shape by the end of the summer (and maybe a little more buff.) Here's hoping...
posted by Dana Lee at 12:55 AM

Yeah, I've decided to put the DanaCam up online for a while (the most recent picture is on the left, click on it to take you to Spotlife directly.) It'll be intermittent, and as usual, mostly when I'm home. I'm expecting to do a lot of work in the apartment this summer, with writing and so on, so I may as well have the "golfball eye" looking in on my world. If you want to know why I bother, or look at the archives, you know you can always go to the DanaCam Archives for that.
posted by Dana Lee at 2:32 PM

Just got the job today today to produce an inexpensive music video! Great piece, when it's all together I'd love to put on the website as a RealPlayer version, but right now I can't, as the artist is still using it as a 'closed circuit' demo piece. If it finally gets released and I can show you a bit of it, I'll let you know when it's ready!
posted by Dana Lee at 1:46 AM

Quote of the Day: "The thing I hate about weddings is the way my old aunts used to come up to me and poke me in the ribs, cackling, "You're next."
They stopped pulling that crap after I started doing the same thing to them at funerals.
posted by Dana Lee at 6:09 PM

I don't know, maybe it's just me. But is anyone else wigged out by these things? I mean, imagine what it must be like to be one of these guys, and there's statues of you everyplace, with your head one third the size of your whole body, and...it nods back and forth mindlessly, endlessly, with no intelligence or independent control of its own. Think about what this is saying...
posted by Dana Lee at 4:40 PM

Life's purpose.

Ever wondered about it? I have from time to time, and I'm thinking about it again lately. If you look through the papers, you can see the world is, as usual, going through some very trying times. My personal philosophy is that we'll make it out the other side okay, but it's going to get worse before it gets better. And I guess that's where this whole 'life purpose' thing comes in.

I have a gut feeling that I should be working more on the novel, and doing less "coasting" in this world. It's been a great vacation, but I think most of us feel that we'd like to do something significant in our time here. I'm beginning to feel I haven't lived out all of the things I have yet to do. Lots of you do that "significant thing" by taking on careers that help people. Many of you raise a family - one of the greatest gifts you can give to the world is a next generation! What we do, hopefully, is take our best skills and use them for the greatest good, to help the greatest number of people.

Which brings me back to the novel. I think I really better get back to writing more of that. Our window of opportunity to do these good things isn't infinite, by the way. We can't just sit back and say "Oh, I know. But I'll start that next week." Because if we do, before we know it, another five years has gone by in a blink of the eye. I suppose this is tied in to that Zen belief, "Live in your now." Our "now" goes by so quickly, followed by another now, and another, and another. So take each one and live it to the fullest.

More on this later, perhaps. (With thanks to my friend Julia, for our great talk on the phone last night!)
posted by Dana Lee at 8:57 AM

I've made the big time. Apparently, I'm being searched rather regularly with . Check this out - people came to my site (or at least tried to do so) based on these searches: "barbietwins", "danacam", "free wiccan layouts", "hacking spotlife", "radiocitymusichall", and "spotlife and naked" (by the way...for that last person? Get a life...). Try 'em in google and see what *you* find!
posted by Dana Lee at 9:46 AM

Here's today's weird statistic: "After the 9/11 terrorist attacks, an AC Nielson survey of grocery store sales reported a brief 12 percent surge in snack foods sales." I thought you should know. I got this little tidbit from http://health.discovery.com/centers/nutrition/dietmyths/eating.html. the Discovery Health Channel online.

" 'Have a nice day', as Americans say." -- Geri Halliwell
posted by Dana Lee at 9:33 AM

Just found this weird site where the author and musician, Twink, has written a bunch of songs for...toy piano. You may think, aw, how cute. But give it a listen. Sure, they remind you of your childhood in their melodic patterns, but there's something more eerie, even disconcerting about the tunes. Check 'em out (there's MP3s available a few clicks away once you get to his site.)
posted by Dana Lee at 9:44 PM

Well, I think we're finally rolling. Welcome to DanaLife. A weblog. A usually gentle musing about the world around us. I'm still figuring this thing out, so more will come soon as I get cosy with the interface. One of the nicest things about this is I don't have to compose anything fancy in FrontPage or (shudder) HTML. www.blogger.com does all the work. They have their own interface and I can post from anyplace in the world, which is probably something I should have had on the Care and Feeding of Happiness World Tour.

Which reminds me. Many of you are wondering what's going on with the continued world travelling? Why haven't I returned to Merrie Olde Englande to live, like I threatened to, and am I going to go there eventually? Well, I've been kinda delayed. In the fall, I figured I'd stick around the block until the spring time and earn some money. And then I went and fell in love! So, I'm pretty happy to be here these days, and there's enough reasons to keep me sustained and enjoying Canada for a while yet. I'm still expecting to head over some time, and that it will be permanent, just not right at the moment.

Meanwhile, I'm going to be ranting here a fair bit, so check back often. You might want to even bookmark this page separately from the PersonalPages main area. Or, at least, when you're visiting, come here every time to see what's new. Even with this initial posting, you can see there's a lot I've been meaning to tell you, but I hated firing up FrontPage and messing around with NewsUpdates every time I wanted to do that. This is more economical, and, like I said, I can do it from anyplace. So, always check here for the latest news.

Speaking of what's new: I really wanted to give you guys more live cameras (with the demise of the DanaCam, I feel I should give you something different to look at.) I really like the Compass traffic cams, especially the ones in which you can see the downtown Toronto intersections (the 401 is *sooo* boring), but with the OPSEU strike, they're out of commission for now. So, stay tuned for those, when the strike's over.

Oh yeah. Other things you were wondering about. The BuffyBars thing was a wierd idea I had a while ago and was simply a matter of cleaning out my in tray on top of my filing cabinet here ("Oh yeah, these stupid wrappers. What the hell can I do with them? Hmm...") And the Picture of the Week idea is going really well. I don't usually have to look very far to find something weird in this town to photograph with the digital camera and upload here. I've messed with some of the pictures, but basically what you see is what I saw (in my own weird mind's eye, I suppose...) So keep checking back for strangeness.

That's it for today. Enjoy the weather (once it gets half decent again.)
posted by Dana Lee at 4:55 PM