Capt. Mondo's World o' Mondo-ness

Royal Winter Agricultural Fair
On Saturday, I took Vanessa to the Royal Winter Agricultural Fair at the International Centre on the C.N.E. grounds. After a long-ish TTC ride there (where a nice Asian-lady praised Vanessa along the way for being so cute), we arrived, paid our fare ($9 for me, Vanessa, being under 5 got in for free) and joined the growing throng of people entering the main building.

Was impressed at the shear size of the exhibition. About half of the space seems to be devoted to agriculturally-related equipment sales, and the rest for the animal and agricultural displays. So saying, there wasn’t a lot of stuff there that appealed to me purchase-wise, as I was hoping for some Xmas-gift inspiration (I was tempted to buy a Milk Board Sweatshirt -- or something like -- out of shear perversity. ;-) Vanessa had a good time though, and managed to hold a day-old chick in her hands, pet a bunny rabbit, roam around the cow stalls, feel some Llama fur and buy a funky Citrine rock that took her fancy in the antique market. Another memorable Vanessa moment for me was watching her shyly ask a bunch of young 4-H girls for one of the free apples they were distributing at the show. While I grew up in a town surrounded with farms, I never really got to know farm life much at all – in part because of my hay allergies, though at heart I was always a city-kid – so a lot of this was as eye-opening to me as it must have been to Vanessa.

While Vanessa was eating an ice cream, I was surveyed for my opinions on the show, and my two complaints were: add more general seats, and better signage (it took me ages to figure out where the dog show was, which was one thing that Vanessa was interested in seeing). One of Erika’s regrets about the show is the fact that the horse show is no longer part of general admission. We managed to accidentally sneak in at one point (which following signs which promised to lead the way to the dog show) but we came just as they were cleaning up between acts, so there wasn’t anything to see. While it was fun, neither of us enjoyed the crowds much – I vow never again to head there on a weekend if I can help it.

Monsters, Inc.
While Erika and her mother continued to add painted decorations to Vanessa’s room, I took Vanessa (and myself ;-) to see the latest Pixar film Monsters Inc. I had read a couple of reviews saying that it wasn’t as good as the two Toy Story films, but I think the reviewers have placed those movies on too-high a pedestal to begin with.

The movie was good, and Vanessa seemed to enjoy it, soaking it all in, riveting her in her seat. She was occasionally scared by a monster or two (and there was at least one two-year old in the audience who found it too much) but a reassuring word from Dad and some popcorn soothed her. The plot and story were good, and the idea that the monsters were just as scared of the kids as kids are of them definitely hit a chord amongst the many children in the audience. I also admired a lot of the technical wizardry in the film, noting how well the animators have conquered such mundane-sounding but hitherto hard-to-simulate things as hair texture and steam. I won’t give away the plot, and will simply add that there’s a lot that will appeal to adults who accompany their kids to the film.

Almost as interesting to me were some of the trailers that appeared before the film. The expanded Harry Potter trailer looks great (gotta see it), and Vanessa was very interested in the Peter Pan sequel from Disney (though it looks to me like a very pale imitation, as many recent such sequels from Disney have been of late). They also had a brief preview of the forthcoming Star Wars II movie, which didn’t reveal anything more about the movie than what’s been speculated about it for many months. The best part by far was a Pixar animated short (a short! I haven’t seen a cartoon short prior to a movie since I was a kid) depicted a bunch of little birds on a telephone wire dealing with an oversized companion.

Remembrance Day
At the end of watching some cartoons on TVO on Sunday morning, there was a two-minute “moment of silence” in honour of Remembrance Day. After 30 seconds or so of silence, Vanessa not surprisingly wondered what was going on. The TV was showing marching parades of old poppied and be-medalled veterans at the cenotaph on Parliament Hill, and I explained as best I could to her 3-year old understanding of things that these people helped keep us free, by fighting “bad guys” from a long time ago. I told her that her late Grandfather and Great-Grandfathers (my Father and paternal/maternal Grandfathers) fought in a couple of these wars, trying to connect her to the old people she was seeing marching past.

A rather “noisy” moment of silence, but I don’t think any veteran would have minded it.

Death of a Digital Camera
If you are wondering why there hasn’t been many digital pictures from me of late, it is because my prized Olympus DL-340 digital camera seems to have given up the ghost. Noticed just prior to heading to Montreal last weekend that it was misbehaving. Erika figures that it has simply been dropped a few too many times.

Am hoping I might be able to get it fixed (it does show some occasional signs of life) but am thinking about getting a new camera with a higher pixel density as a replacement. The latest Canon Elph has been recommended to me by two of my colleagues at work who have one, though am still partial to getting an Olympus (I don’t blame them for my current woes, and I have always been impressed with their optics).