Today was a busy day at work. Nine and a half hours.

I bought the first season of The Office (six episodes) and devoured the thing. I can't say enough good things about that show. Its quality aside, it takes me back to time I spent with Andrea days before she left for Europe last year. The two of us sat on my cousin's couch for hours marathoning the episodes.

It strikes me as odd that I've started working in an office and spending my downtime watching office-centric television. I wonder if I'm trying to make myself sick of it early on.

RANDOM TRIVIA: A man who contributed to the invention of the polygraph also created Wonder Woman. William Moulton Marston pioneered the systolic blood pressure test which would become a main component of lie detection. Marston, a feminist theorist and psychologist, wrote essays on emotion and believed that women were not only more honest and reliable than men, but also faster and more accurate workers. In 1940 he was hired as an educational consultant by a publishing company that would ultimately merge into DC comics, where he was given the go ahead to develop Wonder Woman, a female superhero of his own invention. Wonder Woman's weapon, a magic lasso, when roped around an adversary, forces that adversary to tell the truth. Marston lived in a polyamorous relationship with his wife and lover, fathering children by each.

Supposedly Ottawa will be covered in ankle-deep snow when all is said and done tonight. It's certainly wet and crappy outside now. My apartment, however, is nice and cozy.

I went out and used the gift certificate my brother got me for my birthday at HMV today, picking up Amadeus and Blazing Saddles on DVD. While I was browsing I saw a sign advertising the release of Chinese Democracy in late November. I joked with the cashier that I didn't think I'd live to see the day of that album's release. I won't believe it until I actually see the thing in stores. The reviews should be something to behold.

I got back into my reading schedule today. Tomorrow morning is the job interview and I've been going over information about the House of Commons to familiarize myself with what I may be responsible for.

RANDOM TRIVIA: The total population of the Northwest Territories, the Yukon and Nunavut is less than the total population of Guelph.

I've been haunted by the opening of Sergio Leone's Once Upon a Time in the West since I first watched it about a month ago. I had a dream about it yesterday while napping. I found it online and I thought I'd present it here as part of some random trivia. It runs a bit long, but it's genius. You can definitely see how Leone influenced modern directors like Tarantino in the dramatic intensity department.

RANDOM TRIVIA: After making his stunning American civil war epic "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly," Leone had intended to retire from making Westerns, believing he had said all he wanted to say. When Paramount offered Leone a generous budget along with access to Henry Fonda, his favorite actor with whom he had wanted to work for virtually all of his career, Leone accepted this offer. Leone commissioned Bernardo Bertolucci and Dario Argento – film critics, who later became directors – to help him develop the film in late 1966. The men spent much of the following year watching and discussing numerous classic Westerns such as High Noon, The Iron Horse, The Comancheros, and The Searchers at Leone's house, and constructed a story made up almost entirely of "references" to American Westerns. The opening sequence is an homage to that seen in High Noon. Actor Al Murlock, the shaggy-haired bandit, committed suicide during the film's production by throwing himself out of a hotel window.


Watch Once Upon a Time in the West Opening Scene in Entertainment Videos  |  View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com

I just had to update the Adobe Updater so that it could continue downloading Adobe updates. I must be at the nexus of the universe.

Going to Peterborough tomorrow, mainly for a little Phantom Farm action. I'm quite excited to be bringing Andrea along, as last year I was really wishing she could have been there.

Last night I made chili and watched the Presidential debate before going over to Andrea's. She and Christine were watching The Ring and I caught the last half of it. I've been feeling run down today, but I took a nap and I feel a bit better. Tonight we're going out for sushi at a place on Baseline. It'll be vegetarian.

I would like to start a sporadic feature of random trivia to my updates. It is done:

RANDOM TRIVIA: In ten-pin bowling, a 7-10 split occurs when all pins but 7 and 10, the pins on the extreme sides of the setup, have been knocked over. The "conversion" of this split for a spare is a rare occurrence, particularly in televised bowling. Contrary to myth, it is physically impossible to pick up a 7-10 split by striking one pin and causing it to collide directly with the other. Rather, a 7-10 may only be converted via near freak-accident: one pin is struck, and the impact of the pin as it strikes the "pit" dictates its impact on the remaining pin. Basically, the struck pin has to bounce back out of the pit in just the right way and hit the other.

Here's the first televised instance of a bowler getting a 7-10 split conversion:

It's gorgeous outside today. My absolute favorite kind of weather, and time of year in general. The very end of summer, the very beginning of autumn. Nothing beats it. I moseyed on over to the elections "office," the Metropolitan Bible Church on Bank Street, and updated my registration. All of the pews had been taken off the floor, mounted by cords at the front, and replaced with desks and computers. Separation of church and state... er, province.

I was going to buy a box of Halloween candy but opted for cookies as the really good stuff hasn't come out yet. Which means that I can afford diner. This is what not working does. It forces me into thinking that I'm making significant compromises, when all I'm doing is chipping off a little bit more from the money in my account. There will come a day when I'm working full time, paying off my loan, not paying the slightest amount of attention to problems such as poutine vs. 75 miniature chocolate bars.

RANDOM TRIVIA: The deepest hole ever dug into the earth is only 40,226 feet deep, just over seven and a half miles, and took 22 years to complete. That's only about 0.096% of the way across Earth's diameter. It's called the Kola Superdeep Borehole, and it's located on the Kola Peninsula in Russia. That's deeper than the deepest natural point on the planet, the Mariana Trench in the Pacific Ocean, which is located between Japan and New Guinea and has been measured at different depths averaging around 36,000 feet.

Another fun fact: Earth is not a perfect sphere. It's wider at the equator than it is between the poles. Holy crow!