Creative Services...For the Uncreative Individual

Welcome to the personal website of Larry Chartier, Graphic and Web Designer from Grimsby, Ontario. Larry is currently hard at work with local IT solutions provider, Extreme Technology, as part of the website design and development team.

Monthly Archives: July 2009

Losing my mind…

flooded highwayYesterday Cole, Noah and I tried to make it down to my parents place in Jordan for my sisters birthday…after 3 hours in car we ended up at her parents place.

Just like every other time we go to Jordan, we packed everything up and headed out around 3:30…this time was different. As we passed the 403 Hamilton exit traffic started to slow, eventually to a stop. This was the beginning of me losing my mind.

First we tried taking Eastport Drive over the lift bridge…at the time it seemed like a pretty decent option consider traffic wasn’t moving over the Skyway at all and the QEW was closed ahead….little did I know it would be a disaster. After about 1 hour of driving we were just over the bridge and headed down Beach Blvd. A little further down towards confederation park we were told to turn back because our car (the Focus) wouldn’t make it through the flooded road. At this point were were around 1:30 into the drive….in regular traffic about 10 minutes from home.

This is when the frustration really started to set in. Now we had to try and make our way through industrial Hamilton. After about 30 min. into the city we realized not only was the QEW shut down but also the Red Hill Valley Pkwy. (which we later learned was flooded). There was nowhere to go. We tried heading towards the mountain…hoping for relief…nothing.

After 2 Hours we gave up. Now time to head home…

Based on where we were, Burlington St. was the best option….it took us another 30 minutes to get there and we figured it would be a quick drive back to the highway to head home…Nope. That was blocked off too….The police told us we would have to head back to Centennial to get on the Highway (in the complete opposite direction). By the time we made it back down there and drove into Burlington it was 6:30! One of the most annoying things was that I did not see any flooding on the QEW! I was expecting it to be under water or at the very least something like the plane crash from the movie Knowing…Instead it was open again and traffic was moving along as it normally does. I have never been so angry while driving. Why would they close the QEW!?

In the end we ordered some food from Montfort’s and I tried to relax after a stressful drive that took us nowhere…

flooded red hill valley pkwy.
Photos from thespec.com

A Dark Alternative to the regular Superhero Genre

WatchmenI finally had the chance to check out the Watchmen this past weekend…what an awesome movie! I’d never really heard of the story before the movie came out but now that I have had a chance to look into this dark alternative to the regular superhero genre I want to know more.

The movie starts with a collage of clips starting in the 1940′s to their present time in the ’80s and really gives a good lead into the characters without spending a ton of time slowly telling each of their stories. The movie itself is set up in a parallel universe where the US had won the Vietnam war (with thanks to the Watchmen) and Nixon is running for his fourth term as president. It’s also a world where super heroes (and super villains) had once existed but now seem to be a dying breed. All in all it was a nice change of pace from what I normally see in a superhero movie…I recently watched Spiderman 3….It was horrible. The version I watched was the 3 hour directors cut and from what I have heard, that is the version you want to see. Apparently the theatrical version was cut in such a way you felt like there were holes in the story…I am not surpised people would feel this way as there was so much going on. I actually will probably watch it a second time just to pick up on all the small things I probably missed the first time around…

Final thoughts…a great story, a pretty good movie, and an awesome alternative to the regular superhero films.