Here’s a quick rundown of my experiences with the vendors I used for my wedding. These vendors are in Ottawa, and, for the most part, they did a decent job at a reasonable price.

Venue and catering: The Carleton Golf and Yacht Club hosted our wedding. We were looking for an all-in-one venue that would handle the ceremony, the reception, and the catering. The CGYC clocked in at about $60-$70 per guest. The cost was less than other locations we looked at (notably Strathmere), and the hall was nicer than either the Monterey Inn or Bearbrook Farms. Laurie O’Brien, the clubhouse manager, did a fantastic job at ensuring the reception hall was properly decorated and that everything went smoothly. She (and her staff) were fantastic. Highly recommended.

Transportation: Because our venue was out in the middle of nowhere, we chartered a school bus from Rideau Bus Lines. Their driver knew how to pacify a bunch of drunk wedding goers (turn out the light, natch), was friendly, and knew where he was going. Recommended.

Photographer: We went with Julie Young Photography. She (and her lovely assistant) did a great job at herding the wedding party and composing us into something that I hope is photogenic. We haven’t gotten the final pictures yet, so I’ll hold out on my assessment.

DJ: First Choice Entertainment (613-830-7009) satisfied our music and MC needs. The owner, Greg Fedor, was easily the most energetic vendor we hired. His posse had a good selection of music (even if they didn’t know a good track to foxtrot to), and good equipment. They provided music for the ceremony as well as the reception and dancing. Recommended.

Officiant: Lynne Langille of Exceptional Wedding Ceremonies in Ottawa presided over the ceremony. She did a good job, given the various hiccups we threw at her (collapsing chairs, wrong rings, and a giggling bride and groom). Recommended.

Limousine: We hired Elite Limousine to ferry us from our photo venue to reception/ceremony venue. The driver got lost en route, making us 20 minutes late for our own wedding. Disappointing.

Cake: We ordered cupcakes from the Buttercream Bakery. The cupcakes weren’t bad, but they didn’t have the richness I had hoped for. I can take part of the blame for that – I should have bailed when we did our tasting. Similarly, a cake we ordered for the cutting proved to be pretty bland. What’s worse, a day before the reception, we called them to make sure they had the right address for delivery. They didn’t. Recommended with reservations. If you go with these folks, call at the last minute to make sure they have the right address.

Rings: I tried various jewelery stores, but I didn’t see anything I liked until I went to Magpie. They had a wider selection in styles and materials than we found elsewhere. Their stuff has a bit of a hippy look, but some of us like that kind of thing. Recommended.

A Midwinter’s Dream Tale is a fantastic play. The plot is loosely based on A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and A Winter’s Tale. Fairy king Oberon is horrified that his fairy queen Titania has borne him a child, and orders it taken away by a pair of bumbling mortals. The mortals make off with the child, and Titania follows after them. In that, you could kinda/sorta say that it has something to do with the original Shakespearean plays.

The two mortals: Pommes Frites (an oaf) and ‘Restes (an idiot) are a mix of Bob and Doug McKenzie and Inspector Clouseau. They stumble through the plot wonderfully, never quite understanding what’s going on, or what they should be doing. Coincidentally, they happen to be the core of the Company of Fools company, and some of the stronger actors.

A Midwinter’s Dream Tale isn’t Shakespeare redux. The dialog is fast, modern, and (kinda) witty; there are more dance numbers than soliloquies; the pacing is quick; and the characters are fun.

Go see this play. Pick up the phone, call the Gladstone Theatre (at 613.233.4523) and order tickets. Seriously. It’s only on until Saturday, and this is probably the best play that’s going to be produced in Ottawa this year.

Let’s get this over with: W is a terrible movie. It’s like a really long “This is Your Life,” showing select scenes from George W Bush’s life: his frat hazing, him losing his first bid for congress, him meeting his wife; while kinda, sorta, almost showing the lead up to his invasion of Iraq.

The documentary portions are boring. It skips over the more tawdry (hence interesting) parts of his life, in favour of showing W’s conflict with is dad. Who cares? The interesting bits are glossed over: why did Laura, a Democrat librarian, decide that W was worth her time? How did W act during his father’s presidency? What did he do as governor of Texas?

There is the occasional jab: Bush and his posse of advisors get lost on his ranch while discussing their plans for the war; the scene where W’s advisors try to convince Colin Powell that the Iraq invasion is diabolical. The movie would have been much better if it had given up on trying to be serious and presented itself as an over-the-top comedy: when W says that god has told him to run for president, it should have been a musical number; Carl Rove should have had devil horns and a tail; W should have had nightmares about choking on an Iraq-shaped pretzel.

If you’d like to see an interesting commentary on the current president, rent Homecoming. It’s weaker on current events, but it’s no less insightful.

In late October I started playing Eve Online. It’s a massively multiplayer online game set in space. I’d opted for Eve over other games because of some favourable reviews I’d seen floating around the intartubes. I was looking for something I could play with friends that would be easy to pick up and put down.

The Eve concept is pretty simple. You’re a pilot in a large universe. As a pilot, you get to do stuff: accept missions from agents (transport stuff from point A to point B, kill pirates, mine), hunt other players, mine asteroids, or explore. You can also join other pilots in a corporation for mutual aid. If you’ve ever played Homeworld, you have a good feeling for what this game looks like.

The Good

Some parts of Eve are really good. The game looks great, and it sounds even better. The skill system is also good. It’s biased to help occasional players: skills are earned by time training – if you want to learn the Salvage skill, it’ll take three days realtime, regardless of how much time you spend in game.

The Bad

Sadly, music and pretty pictures does not a good game make.

My first few hours playing Eve were great, if only because of the in-game atmosphere. It feels big, empty, and quiet. But after the novelty wore off, the game got boring.

One of the guiding principles in the design of Eve is that players should have to mindlessly repeat mundane tasks. Combat consists of the following loop:

1 – Enter unfriendly space
2 – Lock onto enemies
3 – Select one enemy
4 – Turn on your appropriate weapons
5 – Wait for the enemy to explode (if the enemy starts whupping your ass, warp away)
6 – While enemies persist, Goto 3

If you tire of that loop, you can try mixing it up by turning on and off support services in your ship (shield boosters, damage control, sensor boosters, etc). Whee!

After you kill some baddies and loot their wrecks, you can take their goodies back to a station and sell it. Even that is a painful process, as the UI doesn’t provide a “sell all this crap” gesture. Instead the user must select every individual looted item and sell it off singly.

If you’re fighting baddies in missions, or looking for random combat encounters then you’re fighting the game’s AI. Which was terrible. The sole strategy the AI uses during combat is “swarming.” All of the enemy ships fly toward you, firing whatever they have. They don’t seem to use any kinds of strategy or tactics. If a fight gets too hairy, you can always warp to the nearest base, repair yourself, buy some new weapons, and fly back. The baddies will obligingly wait in the same positions you left them in.

When I signed up, I had been looking forward to player-versus-player (PvP) combat. But my interest in that quickly soured. Why? Because there’s too much to lose. Ships are expensive, and money is hard enough to get that I don’t want to risk a few hours worth of work (and earning money really does feel like work) on a quick mano et mano battle.

The few times I did enter combat with other humans, it felt like the outcome was determined by the equipment that had been brought into battle. If my enemy had a more expensive ship with better equipment, he would win. If my enemy had a crappier ship, I would win (or at least that was my theory – the expensive ships took too much effort to get).

The Conclusion

It’s a pity that the game reduced to so much grinding. The interface is enjoyably atmospheric, but the game degraded quickly from “fun” to “work.” If you’re looking to spend $20 on some mindless enjoyment, buy yourself some second hand “Choose your own adventure” books: they’re boring and repetitive, but at least they don’t have a monthly fee.