mattm

first I check my 6 emails and then it can go anywhere. Often the weather network is there. The past couple it's been jambands.ca since I'm done school and have time again.

I never even thought of that, hahaha, that should be good, I wonder what he'll say. Woooo hoooo, can't wait for Primus, it's been sooooooooo long

awesome, I can't wait for Panic, woooooo hooooooo, man I hope we can find a babysitter for that night but if we can't, I find nothing wrong in exposing little Trey to a little Widespread and some fine, fine Herring guitar

LOL, that was perfect and yup, it's the widespread panic I'm worried about. Probably only because I've been in it and it's scary and I couldn't imagine having had to climb over lawn chairs. My buddy and I had to climb a fence at that show and chill out at the top until the people just tore the fence down (molson park in barrie and the exits just weren't big enough).

read my other posts. A: they can turn into weapons very, very easily (just swing them, they hurt). B: In the case of an emergency they are mad tripping hazards and can also break turning into dangerous sharp pointy tripping hazards. In the case of an emergency, lets say the stage collapses during a headliner, it's happened before, not necessarily at bluesfest but it could happen, well, I don't know about you but I don't want to be under it so I start moving. The other 15000 people near there start moving. This causes a chain reaction in that the rest of the crowd is forced to start moving. Also, there is a hint of panic which makes rational thought a bit harder. Now, this surging crowd starts tripping on the lawn chairs. The rest of the crowd still trying to get away from the stage keeps moving anyway. Since it's very hard to get past the chairs when there's no emergency, people will fall. The crowd will not wait for them to be picked up, it will keep pushing. Now, on top of getting crushed under a sea of people, there are broken lawn chairs which mean sharp spear type objects sticking up that people could fall on. Now lets make the scenario a little more fun. Lets say you bring your kid up into the crowd a bit, maybe half way, on your shoulders so that they can see the show a little better. Now, same things happens and you are pushing out. You now have the kid to hold onto with both hands, the chairs are even more of a hazard to you as you cannot even use your hands for balance... Now, as mentioned above, I have actually seen an instance where the paramedics could not get through the chairs, they had to let the crowd get the girl out. That is all. I don't want to debate with anyone and I don't want it to be a fight. I'm sending my letters hoping that someone else might see what I see as potential dangers that could very, very easily be avoided.

Nah, it ain't too early, waiting means that nothing possibly can get done, things need to start early. I've already sent a letter to Bluesfest organizers. No response obviously. The letter only covers dangers and the potential for lawsuits should something go wrong. Today I send it to the fire/police/ambulance and then the mayor and sponsors and finally the insurance company. PR for disasters that could have been avoided is deathly to a company, a very bad stain against their name. If anyone listens and they ban lawn chairs like I'm asking then I apologize to any of you that need a lawn chair. All people have to do is show a tiny bit of common courtesy but as happens all the time, one bad apple spoils the whole damn bunch. I also feel really bad for those that need lawn chairs as they cannot go to any other outdoor shows and that's a damn shame (lol, except here in ottawa). Having said that, the letter will most likely get deleted from each inbox and nothing will happen cause no one cares. I'll take my regular injuries that only seem to come from bluesfest and the chairs and try to enjoy the show as much as possible. I don't want to see anyone get seriously hurt, that's all.

Couple things: Western Digital or Seagate, stay clear of most other ones, those two are the primary hard drive makers and make great drives. That said, the company selling the external might not be one of those two but the drive inside might be. Also, an external drive is an internal drive in a portable box marked up by a whole bunch. You'll save money if you just buy a drive and buy the box separate. Also, as AD says (could be kanada_kev that said but whoever...), it has to be formatted as FAT32 to be recognized by both windows and mac. I have: http://www.costco.ca/Browse/Product.aspx?Prodid=10306507&whse=BCCA&topnav=&browse=〈=en-CA I want: http://www.costco.ca/Browse/Product.aspx?whse=BCCA&topnav=&prodid=10305569&ec=BCCA-EC8949-ProdID10306507&pos=0F〈=en-CA Oh yeah baby, now that's a hard drive. Also, one great feature to have is the ability to daisy chain drives. In other words, your drive should be able to have other drives plug into it... The single most important thing is to remember that an external hard drive, as mentioned, is an internal hard drive in a box. I can't count the amount of times I've heard someone tell me that their drive stopped working, they had lost their data and thrown the thing away. Take it out and plug it into a desktop first!! Man, it's as bad as the guy who gave a laptop to my buddy cause the hard drive died. He put a bigger drive in and had a new laptop.

winamp rocks, always has. The only thing iTunes is good for is to load songs onto the iPod, otherwise there are a slew of much, much better alternatives out there to use as a jukebox. I'll use Windows Media Player before iTunes mostly because it looks like a windows program, not a mac program running in windows. winamp takes it though. It plays all my sound files and can even play my video files though I don't let it. One of the funnest things is that it's not all that hard to customize in the sense of making your own skins. Also, try grabbing some of the visualization plugins for winamp, woooooooooooeeeeeeeeeeeee, you can even get ones that will turn your desktop background into a visualization thing (you still see your icons and can use programs, it's like the background picture is replaced with wicked awesome colors). Also, you can use winamps out_wave (or wave_out??) plugin to save any sound file to .wav format, even cd's and .wav's can become mp3's or any other type of files. lots of other fun stuff too and I'm glad it can now replace iTunes.

you guys are all on crack. Transformers rule and always will be the best storage spaces. Gi-Joe rules cause no one ever gets killed. Star Wars storage is for nerds. I don't even know what Micronauts are man, c'mon... Lol. As to actual real storage space, the place I was talking about before is called Just Right Self Storage and it's located at 255 City Center Ave. It's not ready yet, though, probably another month but it's brand spanking new which could be good as far as quality and it's even got drive through (not sure how that works though). To get there you would go down Scott and turn onto City Center Ave. You can't miss it as it's just off Preston and it's right beside the super duper ugly building that has City Center written on it in huge letters at the top.

My worry is the danger, it's too hard to navigate through the chairs when there's a mad crowd and, well, from experience of being in a crowd about 40 000 strong that was determined to exit a venue, the lawn chairs would have caused a wee bit of a problem and if there were old folks or injured folks they wouldn't have stood a chance. Standing you can let the crowd push you but if you run into the chairs and the crowd is pushing too hard... I've also been in a riot at a festival where everything was being thrown around, lit on fire, etc. If there'd been lawn chairs there I bet people would have been hitting each other with them and broken lawn chairs might as well be spears. It's not a problem at the back at all, there's room to walk around. Now say you start choking or having a seizure in the middle of the crowd, well, it's a tad easier for the paramedics to just push through a crowd then it is for them to push through a sea of chairs. I saw a girl pass out and the paramedics just couldn't get to her, people in the crowd had to pull her to the edge. This was when it was at city hall, though. For me it's the potential danger that gets me. Annoying as the lawn chair folk are in the middle of the crowd, I don't want to be impaled by a broken lawn chair if theres a fire and people decide they want out NOW and I can't get past the damn chairs. And I'm able bodied.

I never had start wars stuff for some reason. oh, wait, this is thread hijacking I think, yeeeeeaaaaahhhhh stoooooraaaaagggee spaaace (psst, need to start a favorite toys QOTD)

sweet, I like to hear that. Little Trey will be almost 1 by the time moe.down arrives. Maybe I'll give him his first guitar that weekend although he seems to be more inclined to being a computer nerd (yup, 6 months and the computer keyboard is probably his favorite toy, gotta get him on the music keys...). Actually, that makes me real happy. If a 4 month can do bonnaroo then an 11 month can for sure do moe.down.

So would I, so would I, anyone want to give me a PS3? PS: I just graduated and am getting a new job that lets me program in linux all day like the nerd I must be and it should be great. C/C++, embedded linux, oh yeah baby.

yeah, me too, I miss my transformers and gi-joes and legos and such.

I am so envious/jealous of that, I want the You won't sell by chance will you? If you wander down preston street just past somerset you'll see spruce street. Turn left on that and when you get to the end of the street, make a right and you will see a brand spaking new self storage building but I don't know if it's completely built yet. Looks like a pretty good place, though. I'll try to grab the name of it on the way home (and phone number, etc)

A few other questions. Are there any suggestions as to things like sun-screen (30 spf, 60 spf, etc, etc) or any other things we need for a little baby at a show? This will be little Trey's first festival. Should we bring some sort of mat for changing him, I guess a folded blanket is fine, or do you think there will be any change spots (though I don't think he really cares about being naked in a crowd, he'd probably much rather be naked actually). Basically the list has ear phones so far, any other things that are baby necessities for festivals? We'll of course have the regular stuff like blankets and spare diapers/clothing which I'm thinking will be enough... Also, what about camping? Anyone ever camp out with their little ones at a festival (we're talking less than a year old although I'm curious as to any answers)? Currently for moe.down we're pondering going the hotel route but if I hear of lots of successful camping stories...

hockey sucks, hahaha, got ya's all. I like to start typing replies to topics and then not actually post them but stay logged in just to make sure people are wondering what's going on...

What is it you need to store (or how big)?

lol, I'm wondering that too. I think little Trey will keep his headset thing on but not sure... Also, yeah, that's the plan, just stay around the back of the crowd. No need to be up front and it's the music and the whole atmosphere that the kids can benefit from. I think the next festival will be moe.down for us with little Trey but not sure, we'll see as I just graduated (finally) and can start making some money.

America by Neil Diamond shut up, I was around 3 years old and it was what my parents listened to and I loved the song. lol. I also had a winnie the pooh record player with such hits as the mini pops, chipmunks and many others but I don't really remember that far back, I just know that I used that record player right until it no longer worked, loved it.

Actually, we'll have a blanket so he can be on the ground but we also have a harness front pack type thing to carry him around in that we'll be swapping. http://www.ergobabycarriers.com/babycarriers/item/BC6G/ When it comes to the headliners we'll mostly be staying near the back although we'll probably try to get a babysitter for the panic/primus night. Also going to grab a set of these: http://earplugstore.stores.yahoo.net/ejuearmu.html To protect his little ears. There's ear plugs that you can get as well but if they fall out they can be a choking hazard and also leave the ear unprotected. We also live very close by so if we need to take off, we can which is one great benefit (literally it's probably about an 8 or so minute walk from the front door to the entrance). On those lines, as mentioned we have a house just a couple blocks from bluesfest chalk full of baby stuff if anything is needed (diapers, changing space, maybe all go there and hang out while the little one's take a nap, etc). PM me with your info once it gets closer to the shows (same with others that have babies). Now, we don't want to have to miss all the shows due to catering but if there are a couple people with little dudes/dudettes and we all want to take a little break... The big thing with the lawn chairs is that in the giant headlining crowds they are an annoyance as well as a safety hazard but way out at the back of the crowd where it's not as busy and there's room to navigate it's not such a problem. The problem is that people can't grasp that concept and insist on putting them up everywhere. On those lines, we will probably bring the stroller in for the daytime shows. It's a smaller one that folds up and has a strap to put over your shoulder which we'll probably leave with buddies near the taping section if there's not enough room. Kind of makes me into a hipocrite but as mentioned, the only reason I'm down with banning the lawn chairs is that they get abused. If people exercised a little bit of common sense and courtesy, it wouldn't really be that much of a problem (and I would finally shut up about it )

This has probably already been posted but here's the no lawn chairs facebook group. http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=15177079605 I'm even more worried about the chairs now that I have a little one. I just can't stop thinking about what would happen if there's an emergency during a headliner and the crowd has to leave fast. This happened at a Metallica concert I went to a long time ago and without chairs a bunch of people were trampled. Think of the mess that would be around all the lawn chairs, how many kids would be trampled cause they just can't get past them, etc, etc, etc... If you bring a lawn chair, just at least keep that in mind, you could very well be the cause of a lot of pain for no other reason than that you're too lazy/stuck up to sit on the perfectly good grass. Sorry, I'm not going to rant more this year but had to get that out. PS: Reader's Digest did a survey of the rudest cities in Canada. Ottawa of course scored last place, rudest city. The tests involved going to a busy intersection and dropping papers to see if anyone would help pick them up, or walking behind people into buildings to see if anyone would hold the door and finally to buy a bunch of little things to see if they could get a thanks. hmmmmmmm, ottawa, only place I've seen lawn chairs at festival, ottawa, rudest city... PSS: I agree that in all the places I've lived, I have observed the least amount of common courtesy and love for neighbor here than anywhere else.

damn lawnchairs

is back, just letting y'all know

yupper and I think that if we seriously try to fight the air pollution we will inevitably do battle against other pollutions such as those dumped into the water or the garbage dump.