Faraway, So Close

Well there's 3 versions of the single floating around apparently - check out this site for all 3 (although Mark said that the site crashed his computer so you might want to be careful with that one!). Apparently two of the versions are essentially the same, one is just a single channel (mono) version of the other so it sounds a bit different but is basically the same. Either way it's great to hear new U2 material, even if it is a throw away tune from the ATYCLB sessions.

Too busy today at work to think as two people (one being Phil - go yell at him for me) were away sick today. But we had a fun time in the store - the day goes by quicker when it's busy like that.

The MTV Video Music Awards are on tonight so I think we'll be watching that until it gets lame. Perhaps sneaking over to my parent's place to sit in the hot tub would be a good idea after standing on my feet all day. L8r.

Posted by iChris at 7:05 PM | Permalink

U2log.com has a post on Bono's God Shaped Hole.

All this is just an excuse to test out the Trackback system... again... yes I'm stupid.

Posted by iChris at 6:31 PM | Permalink

This is one of the funniest trailers (Quicktime req'd) I've seen for a movie in a long time. I had no idea Jerry Seinfeld was making a movie and it may not even be any good, but we laughed pretty hard here at the office.

For more Seinfeld stuff, check out 'I've Never Watched Seinfeld' for tips on how to talk like you're a Seinfeld expert without even having to watch the show.

Posted by iChris at 6:30 PM | Permalink

The u2 news site I work with has got the new u2 song already - apparently it was played earlier this morning on the BBC. Click here to check it out!

(read on for chords and lyrics if you're so inclined)
Electrical Storm (lyrics)

Intro: F#m / A / E / B

Verse:
F#m / A / B
The sea it swells like a sore head
F#m / A / B
and the night it is aching
F#m / A / B
Two lovers lie with no sheets on their bed
F#m / A / B
and the day it is breaking

F#m / A / B
On rainy days we go swimming out
F#m / A / B
on rainy days, swimming in the sound
F#m / A / B
On rainy days we go swimming out

Pre-Chorus(?):
D E C#m
You're in my mind all of the time
D
I know that's not enough
D E
if the sky can crack
C#m
there must be some way back
D
for love and only love

Intro: F#m / A / E / B

2nd Verse, Same as the First:

Car alarm won't let you back to sleep
you're kept awake dreaming some else's dream
coffee is cold, but it will get you through
compromise, that's nothing new to you
let's see colours that have never been seen
let's go to places no one else has been

Pre-Chorus(?):
You're in my mind all of the time
I know that's not enough
if the sky can crack
there must be some way back
to love and only love

Chorus:

D / E
F#m A
Electrical Storm
D / E
F#m A
Electrical Storm
D / E
F#m A
Electrical Storm
B
Baby don't cry

Intro: F#m / A / E / B (2x)

Verse Chords: (F#m / A / B)
It's hot as hell, honey in this room
sure hope the weather will break soon
the air is heavy, heavy as a truck
hope the rain will wash away our bad luck

D / E / C#m / D
heeeey... heeeey.....

D / E / C#m / D
If the sky can crack, there must be some way back
for love and only love

D / E
F#m A
Electrical Storm
D / E
F#m A
Electrical Storm
D / E
F#m A
Electrical Storm
B (long time)

Solo: F / C / E / A

E / A
Baby don't cry
Baby don't cry
Baby don't cry
Baby don't cry

Posted by iChris at 6:29 PM | Permalink

Since I haven't done one of these in awhile, here's some stuff I've found on the web:

- Doughboy (flash req'd) - no explanation necessary
- Apple plans on having real jaguar's in their stores upon the release of their new operating system, codename Jaguar. (satire warning)
- Not for the easily disturbed: the BBC looks into where all the old computers go after they die
- web nerds like myself should check out webmonkey for some great web design tips
- These churchgoers were upset about getting a parking ticket while they were in church - giving us the quote of the week:

"People shouldn't have to go to church and worry about getting a ticket"

That's it for me... have a great weekend!

Posted by iChris at 6:28 PM | Permalink

I just posted this on u2log.com, but you can read a report of U2's video shoot for their new single coming out in October called Electric Storm here.

In other news, if you like to sit in a hot tub, play pool or watch movies on a big screen tv (on D V D ' s! yack) then you're invited to Mark and my b-day party on Saturday night @8pm. Well, actually you'll have to email me first to get directions... but you get the idea.

Posted by iChris at 6:27 PM | Permalink

Well I tried updating to the newest version of MovableType (which I managed to do without screwing up!) except I can't get the new feature, Trackback, to work. I'm probably doing something wrong since I don't really know what I'm doing and am just faking my way through this all. Anyway, if there's a MT coder who happens to pop by and wants to take a look, please let me know!

It's supposedly pretty hot outside today - I don't really get out much during the day - so hopefully I don't melt on my bikeride home. I'll have to remember to take some H20 with me.

Possible joint b-day party with Mark and I on Friday so if you're in the area, look us up! :)

(update - maybe I did get it working.. who knows?)
(updated update - I didn't. Our server doesn't support the functions necessary... oh well)

Posted by iChris at 6:26 PM | Permalink

I was greeted with a special surprise on Friday as we were all given webcams at work. Nothing special, but free is still free and always a heck of a deal. So we spent some time fooling around with the various things you can do - and got kind of bored with it after a few minutes. But it is cool to have to chat with friends who are over-seas (or in a different country, like Matt & Heidi in Quebec!). Mark was over and so we fooled around with the blue screening software that comes with the camera:

In other news, we finally got ourselves a new bed! It's nice to have a bed that doesn't sink in the middle and you can actually feel rested after a night's sleep. We shopped around, got tired of that (pun intended) and settled on a nice queen sized mattress/box spring. The true test will be how our bodies feel after a month of sleeping on it.

Oh yeah, and happy birthday to me. :)

Posted by iChris at 6:25 PM | Permalink

.. for only $150,000US.

This site lists all of Clear Channel Entertainment's pricing for college's who want to hire various entertainers and musicians for an event. So, if you're wanting to book a really special birthday party for someone, get out the old cheque-book and drum up some coporate sponsors and away you go!

Sadly, U2 isn't listed - I guess there really are some things money can't buy. :)

Posted by iChris at 6:24 PM | Permalink

kip this entry if you don't like hearing about conspiracy theories and/or world events in your blogging.

Ok, now that I got that out of the way. :) I did my occasional reading of www.whatreallyhappened.com and came across this page which basically goes into great detail about the supposed Israeli spy ring operating in the US and basically ends up saying they (Israel) were actually behind the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.

If you want to continue reading, click on 'more' below...

There's not a lot of direct proof on the page, and they link off to many other sites so it feels a bit like a conspiracy theory just to blame someone else. But what was interesting was the mention that Israel owns a lot of the telecommunications companies in the states, including Odigo which is behind a lot of the instant messaging services (ie AIM) that we use. That's freaky enough, considering they could tap into it whenever they want and monitor for certain conversations. What's even more interesting and gives more weigh to the idea that Israel is behind the attacks on Sept. 11 is that Odigo's offices are 2 blocks from the WTC towers - and recieved a warning 2 hours before the attacks occured. CNN had the story on their site, but then pulled it for some unexplained reason. In fact, if you search for Odigo on their site, a brief description of the story will come up, but the link to the actual articles states that it doesn't exist anymore. Here's what the summary states:

The FBI is looking into whether a warning sent to employees at an instant message company less than two hours before jetliners slammed into the World Trade Center was connected to the attacks, a company executive confirmed Friday.

(Some real news sites still have info on this - newsmax)

I don't consider myself a conspiracy theorist by any measure, I just like to try and read both (or all) sides of a story, not just what the media decides to tell us. There may be very good reasons for all of this happening, but it just makes it real suspicious when the US government doesn't want to be open and honest about what's going on.

There. Done. End of conspiracy theory by a non-conspiracy theorist. :) Back to work.

Posted by iChris at 6:23 PM | Permalink

I've been really enjoying the new cd's we've picked up recently. Sue and I both went on a CD buying spree (2 cd's is a spree for us!), she picked up Alanis' 'Under Rug Swept' which, from the few times I've heard it is actually a pretty good CD. Not nearly as much angst as she used to have - maybe it's the fact that she can blow her nose with $1,000 bills now.
At the same time, I picked up Our Lady Peace - Gravity which has gotten repeated plays in the car stereo. I don't mind singers with distinctive voices (see the next purchase) so these guys don't grate on me the way they seem to for other people. They're also one of the better rock bands on the Canadian scene right now, IMHO.
Finally, I had picked up Oasis - Heathen Chemistry because I'd heard the first two singles and liked them so I thought I'd give the album a try. While it hasn't gotten as much play as OLP has, I really like the album. It's just not as much rock'n in the car type music, more like a good album to put on while working on a web site. :)

Some albums that I'm looking forward to hearing are:
- the new best-of from U2 with 2 new tunes
- Coldplay's "A Rush of Blood to the Head"
- Bruce Springsteen's "The Rising" is supposed to be good, but that could just be all the whole "America looking to get back to it's roots" thing
- Holly Mcnarland's "Home Is Where My Feet Are" whose single 'Beautiful Blue' is, well, beautiful.

Posted by iChris at 6:00 PM | Permalink

Just curious as I managed to get a glimpse of this page on my sis-in-law's new computer and noticed it looked all fubar'ed - at least in comparison to how I view it and think it looks.

Does the site have two nicely laid out columns, the left one being the entries and the right one listing the archives, links, about me etc.. Or does it just go in one big long page that you have to scroll for, like, ever to get to the bottom of?

Please comment.

Posted by iChris at 5:59 PM | Permalink

Oh, one other thing I did forget to say. The tunes that I've been working on with Travis are finally up on our mp3.com site - so go and check 'em out and then come back here and leave some feedback. Don't bother with the last one as it's just an earlier version of that song that's much better in it's newer incarnation.

Go on, we can take it. We're big boys now. Let me know what you love or hate about 'em.

Posted by iChris at 5:58 PM | Permalink

Well Waskesiu was a very relaxing time and we definitly wish we could have stayed longer... especially when the first really warm day we got was the day we were leaving. My family's starting to call it the Curse of Waskesiu as it seems everytime we go there it's always crappy weather right up until the day we leave. It wasn't all bad - we did manage to get in a bike/roller blade trip and a few walks to get ice cream (we highly recommend getting a Big Olaf while there - mmmmmm Big Olaf).

When we got home we were so rejuvanted that we decided to start painting our basement. So far we've got the laundry room done which took us non-painting inclined folk about 4 hours - so I'd say we've got a good 10-12 hours left of painting to be done. Ugh.

Hey I finally got myself a bike (check out 'Slick' near the bottom). Nothing special, just a Canadian Tire bike that will get me too and from work but it felt good to finally do it after talking about getting one for the last couple of months.

We watched 'Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels' last night which I found was actually a better movie than 'Snatch', but not as funny. They're both pretty similair but from what I remember of Snatch, it was more violent graphically than Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels. But that could just be my memory.

Have a great day - nothing else from me to say.

Posted by iChris at 5:58 PM | Permalink

We watched 'Amelie' last night and enjoyed it a lot. (M&H you'll love the french - Heidi could probably even watch it without subtitles by now I bet!) A very cute, funny movie. I was really impressed with the whole look of the film - the camera angles, the over-saturated colors - very well done. Some of the extras on the DVD were interesting, some were boring and some we didn't watch.

Two thumbs up from this household.

We're off to the lake so don't expect much in the way of updates. Watch Mark's site for possibly more updates - or possibly not.

l8r.

Posted by iChris at 5:56 PM | Permalink

Updates may be few and far between for the next little while. I'm off work and we're also taking off to Waskesiu for part of it.

Hope everybody has a good (and safe) long weekend! Much respect and big ups to ya'll!

Posted by iChris at 5:56 PM | Permalink

Well sort of. The pay isn't that great (it's $0/month) and very little in the way of benefits - but it does have a certain amount of prestige. I got 'hired' on to help out at one of my favorite u2 news sites, u2log.com. It gets anywhere from 1400 to over 3000 visits a day from around the world - so I hope I don't screw up! :)

Anyway, my posting name over there will be 'nothedge' (as in not the edge, get it?) so if you're so inclined and don't mind stomaching a little u2 fandom, stop by for a visit sometime.

In "Hey, look who else has a blog" news, my buddy Mark has got himself all blogged up and ready to go. It's still a work in progress (mainly because my work doesn't progress) but for now you can find his site here. It should be switching to an easier to remember name in the very near future but that's it for now.

Take it easy and enjoy the long weekend!

Posted by iChris at 5:55 PM | Permalink

Check out this site for a live shot from a Boston area aquarium. I could watch for hours.

Everybody to the limit. Annoy everyone around you with your speaker's cranked.

Sit on this. Just what I need right now after a filling lunch at Alexander's. Mmmm... chicken fingers and fries with dipping sauce....

To go or not to go, that's not a quote from either of these plays: Mark recommends you go to Shakespeare on the Saskatchewan. He's seen Hamlet and loved it and we're planning on seeing the Alchemist sometime as well.

Posted by iChris at 5:54 PM | Permalink

orry to all that have been looking for the spidey dance. I mis-labeled it in the img tag and so when it went to an archive (off the main page) it lost it's link. Since I don't have a search function on this site (yet!) and so you don't have to go searching through the archives to find it, I'll post it up here again:

Posted by iChris at 5:53 PM | Permalink