Fall is here...
Oct 20 - Petty Thoughts
I happened to hear on the radio that today was Tom Petty's birthday, so he was 58 today, almost the same age as my parents. Well, not quite, but the same generation. I have not heard any of his more recent things, but some of his videos are just amazing, all the more so considering that they run fully-animated for the entire length of the song - not easy and not cheap to do. Watch 'em!
I may have mentioned it before, but the main radio station here in Victoria plays a LOT of the music I like. Quite a few classic rock oldies, plus groups like Barenaked Ladies, Matchbox20 and of course, a ton of Tom Petty. When I was listening to 104.5 or 99.9 FM in Niagara, I'd be lucky to hear one Petty song a week. Here, I hear at least one a DAY, if not more - fantastic! Plus I never DID manage to get a call through for the damn ChumFM Jet vacation contest...
Oct 21 - Series-ously, folks
As I am browsing through YouTube, I keep finding myself looking up old forgotten TV shows to see how many episodes have made it onto the site from people's private archives; VHS quality still looks OK at regular YouTube resolution, despite it being an analog recording.
One series I recall with fondness is 'V' - which was really an eight-part miniseries that evolved into a not-as-good followup series. Amazingly, despite the massive budget overruns of the original series, serious consideration was being given a few years ago to doing a new take on 'V' for TV. My favourite writer, J. Michael Straczynski, even wrote a pilot treatment for the new series, which is fantastic - you can read it in its entirety here. Alien lizards, giant spaceships hovering over cities, cool laser weapons... I loved 'V' for those things and more... as well as scratching my head over things like the 'Starchild' and other gaffes that can only be attributed to bad TV Exec interference in the series. Ah well, I was a kid then... TV politics and budget realties were well beyond my scope of the world.
Speaking of things I liked as a kid, I really, really wanted one of the Imperial AT-AT walkers from The Empire Strikes Back. I was given a choice at the time though: the Milennium Falcon( the COOL new, customizable and vastly improved 2008 model is here )or the AT-AT, as a one-off birthday gift. I chose the Falcon, and in hindsight I think it was the better choice, as I got a lot more play value out of it... despite its fragility. Still, the thought has crossed my mind over the years to pick up a cheap used AT-AT on eBay or somewhere... until I saw THIS. Guess I should have opted for more Lego instead, eh? Still, I JUST discovered that someone is selling models of the alien ships from V: The Series... I always wanted one of those, since they never officially released any sort of toy versions back in the 80's. I envy kids nowadays though, when they get toys like this- but I must admit that the majority of purchasers will be collectors, who are really just kids at heart.
Oct 22 - Sketchy Steebs
A lady today, who introduced herself as a sketch artist, came back to the branch after a first visit to cash a chq, and asked if she could take my picture. I was flattered, but had to refuse due to company policy about pictures being taken in the branch. She said that she had not seen my particular combination of curly dark hair and greying goatee before, which amused me. I spotted her later on in the week while I was out and smiled, but for some reason she didn't recognize me... which means I am not all that distinctive after all. Huh. Perhaps the TV / Film career I had planned might best be put on hold, despite my proximity to Vancouver... which is ironic, as I managed to move out here JUST as both SG-1 and SG: Atlantis got canceled, both of which filmed in Vancouver. D'oh!
Once I was home, I headed out again shortly afterwards to the Cook St. Starbuck's to try and take advantage of the sunshine. I managed to get in about an hour of decent, if chilly, patio time before the light waned enough to bring on the real chills, then moved indoors for the remainder of my two ours of free internet access. I had also set up a VPN connection with my home PC, which I tested while I was there - worked like a charm! I was able to securely access any shared folders from my home PC, negating the need to carry duplicate files around with me. Getting Mp3 files to stream fast enough eluded me though, so it is a work in progress but still nice to see work... for free!
While I was on the patio though, a bit of serendipitous luck happened. An older gentleman in line had commented on my Paul McCartney Steebs card, which he had only seen once before way out east. He struck up a conversation with me again while I was out on the patio with my laptop; turns out he is from a company that designs aviation software and who are looking for a technical writer to update / expand their manual. While not comitting to anything or overstating my own qualifications, I settled with getting in touch with him fairly soon to discuss the matter. Which also meant I had to update my Soronos.com site for the first time in... 5 years? Longer? Darn it, these things sneak up on you sometimes!
Oct 23 - Free Budgets
I have been looking at various ways to stretch my savings and lower my monthly budget pain, as you may have guessed from my decision to remove cable TV from my bills - for now. I have also discovered that my computers heat the place rather nicely without any additional help, given its relatively small size, as I mentioned in previous blog posts. Given that my electric bills have been rather low, and my gas bills correspondingly small, the plan seems to be working this far; with average temperatures at night here hovering around 6 degrees and interior temperatures at around 24, with no additional heat sources, I find things are balanced quite nicely.
Another place I came across with tons of great savings ideas is The Dollar Stretcher. This site is packed with great ideas to make one's budget stretch, and does not involve anything drastic such as growing your own vegetables in the bathtub or living by flashlight once the sun goes down.
One thing I have always found exorbitantly expensive is... MS Office. Even the Student Edition is far too expensive, though it HAS come down( a little )since my university days. A fantastic FREE atlernative is OpenOffice, affectionately known as 'OOo' on the 'net. This is an open-source, community-driven alternative to MS Office that does ALL the same things... for free. Better yet, it can read and save MORE formats than MS's product can, and is constantly being updated, again for free. So if you balk( like me )at spending money every few years for MS's bloatware, give Open Office a try... I've been using it for years and can attest it works as well as MS's products. Without the cost.
Oct 24 - Here's a tip
Someone left me a tip today at work, something that has very rarely happened in all the years with the company; they are officially discouraged for various reasons which I will not get into. Despite my protests though, a gentleman left me $20.00 when all was said and done, stating that he enjoys the fact that I am "Always friendly, efficient and well-spoken" when dealing with him. I thanked him and said that if he took a comment card with him to fill out to that effect, it would make my day. Hopefully it reaches head office, where it may offset the next insane person who walks in the door... more on that concept a few paragraphs down from here.
Again on the subject of cost savings, I am debating cancelling my Vonage line in Niagara... somewhat. It sees infrequent use, with few people to date using it to call me for free way, way out here in BC. I understand everyone's busy; so am I... but for now I am still on the fence about maintaining an easy link back east, unused as it is. Ah well.
Oct 25 - Lunch? Couch?
I had lunch today at The King & Thai( pun! )in Cook St. Village with a friend of a co-worker; the Thai restaurant is part of a mini-food court at the Village that will be expanding shortly. While the prices are not cheap, the portions are good, the place has two sunny patios AND best of all: it's good food! We ended up chatting about all sorts of tech topics over at Starbuck's until well into mid-afternoon, when the sun finally arced down enough to splash Steeb's patio with some warming rays. I have to admit, I am still adjusting to the concept of 'outdoor weather' here - people seemed perfectly content to sit outside in ten-degree weather, as long as the sun was shining, even if it was without much warmth. Dressing in layers and taking advantage of every decent weather day seems ingrained in folk around here, whereas I am used to holing up somewhere warm, or dashing from home to places with good heating and back again to a warm car.
In the evening, I worked on a few projects, including a little more on what I am tentatively titling "Half Lives" which is the story idea I had this past summer. I have several outlines plotted for it, and have been searching them for clichés on the 'net to avoid retreading ground others have written already. More on this as I develop the structure and get at least five chapters solidly written out... once I decide on WHICh chapters to write as a test, that is!
Late in the evening I nodded off for a while, which was nice as I did not know I was that tired: bonus nap! I haven't done that in a while, not since we sold off the extremly Comfy Couches that we had hauled around for years. Damn, I miss those couches... light, easy to move, and very nap-friendly.
Oct 26 - Sunny day, grumpy people
The fourth Sunday in a row I have worked so far has again turned typically beautiful outside, but since I was out for so long yesterday in decent weather I feel little longing to do the same today. Aside from the usual instinct to be anywhere BUT stuck at work, that is... but we all feel that way, most days.
Days like today tickle memories at the back of my head, of school days and crisp weather with winds tossing leaf piles to and fro across the ground. Bright sunshine and autumn colours always make me smile, for like Christmas, this time of year I find it easiest to summon memories I thought forgotten.
Yesterday was supposed to be when the old Daylight Savings Time for the fall season kicked in, but with the new DST brought into play back in 2007, it won't take effect until Nov. 2nd. Nice to see that we are keeping time with the USA so easily... good old Canadian sitck-up-for-itiveness. You can check your correct local time easily at TimeAndDate.com, which is detailed enough to take into account things like those few cities in BC that do NOT use DST - yes, there ARE places like that still around.
A bit of grim elderly humour today: I heard a faint rapping coming from the front area, yet the doorbell had not gone off. Going up front, I saw an elderly man standing at the front door with a walker, tapping his keys on the door. I motioned for him to come in... and spent the next 15 minutes trying to get him to use the unlocked front door. Apparently his strength, if you call it that, was not such that he could easily open our front door... a first, in my experience, for this location. Even writing large signs on scrap paper did not help, as it turns out he could barely see. Finally, after a few well-choreographed pantomimes of pulling hard on a door, I managed to get him into the branch... where he promptly complained that if I saw him having trouble, why had I not rushed out to help? I explained the concept of a secure area, but I think he was not really interested in any answer I was giving him. I hope that if I get that feeble in my years, that I will recognize my lack of strength and take steps to ensure I never spend time tapping at open doors, waiting to be let in... grumpily.
On that note, I headed home in the dark, eagerly awaiting NEXT Sunday, when I will be able to head home in something other than total darkness. Some NWN time, as well as listening to SG: Atlantis commentaries while typing up the blog... and here we are.
It seems we have a dearth of comments of late - I can see that people are reading the blog, which is GREAT... but few comments. Is it that I cover all the bases, or are people so stunned at the end that they forget to comment? I just can't tell.
Oct 20 - Petty Thoughts
I happened to hear on the radio that today was Tom Petty's birthday, so he was 58 today, almost the same age as my parents. Well, not quite, but the same generation. I have not heard any of his more recent things, but some of his videos are just amazing, all the more so considering that they run fully-animated for the entire length of the song - not easy and not cheap to do. Watch 'em!
I may have mentioned it before, but the main radio station here in Victoria plays a LOT of the music I like. Quite a few classic rock oldies, plus groups like Barenaked Ladies, Matchbox20 and of course, a ton of Tom Petty. When I was listening to 104.5 or 99.9 FM in Niagara, I'd be lucky to hear one Petty song a week. Here, I hear at least one a DAY, if not more - fantastic! Plus I never DID manage to get a call through for the damn ChumFM Jet vacation contest...
Oct 21 - Series-ously, folks
As I am browsing through YouTube, I keep finding myself looking up old forgotten TV shows to see how many episodes have made it onto the site from people's private archives; VHS quality still looks OK at regular YouTube resolution, despite it being an analog recording.
One series I recall with fondness is 'V' - which was really an eight-part miniseries that evolved into a not-as-good followup series. Amazingly, despite the massive budget overruns of the original series, serious consideration was being given a few years ago to doing a new take on 'V' for TV. My favourite writer, J. Michael Straczynski, even wrote a pilot treatment for the new series, which is fantastic - you can read it in its entirety here. Alien lizards, giant spaceships hovering over cities, cool laser weapons... I loved 'V' for those things and more... as well as scratching my head over things like the 'Starchild' and other gaffes that can only be attributed to bad TV Exec interference in the series. Ah well, I was a kid then... TV politics and budget realties were well beyond my scope of the world.
Speaking of things I liked as a kid, I really, really wanted one of the Imperial AT-AT walkers from The Empire Strikes Back. I was given a choice at the time though: the Milennium Falcon( the COOL new, customizable and vastly improved 2008 model is here )or the AT-AT, as a one-off birthday gift. I chose the Falcon, and in hindsight I think it was the better choice, as I got a lot more play value out of it... despite its fragility. Still, the thought has crossed my mind over the years to pick up a cheap used AT-AT on eBay or somewhere... until I saw THIS. Guess I should have opted for more Lego instead, eh? Still, I JUST discovered that someone is selling models of the alien ships from V: The Series... I always wanted one of those, since they never officially released any sort of toy versions back in the 80's. I envy kids nowadays though, when they get toys like this- but I must admit that the majority of purchasers will be collectors, who are really just kids at heart.
Oct 22 - Sketchy Steebs
A lady today, who introduced herself as a sketch artist, came back to the branch after a first visit to cash a chq, and asked if she could take my picture. I was flattered, but had to refuse due to company policy about pictures being taken in the branch. She said that she had not seen my particular combination of curly dark hair and greying goatee before, which amused me. I spotted her later on in the week while I was out and smiled, but for some reason she didn't recognize me... which means I am not all that distinctive after all. Huh. Perhaps the TV / Film career I had planned might best be put on hold, despite my proximity to Vancouver... which is ironic, as I managed to move out here JUST as both SG-1 and SG: Atlantis got canceled, both of which filmed in Vancouver. D'oh!
Once I was home, I headed out again shortly afterwards to the Cook St. Starbuck's to try and take advantage of the sunshine. I managed to get in about an hour of decent, if chilly, patio time before the light waned enough to bring on the real chills, then moved indoors for the remainder of my two ours of free internet access. I had also set up a VPN connection with my home PC, which I tested while I was there - worked like a charm! I was able to securely access any shared folders from my home PC, negating the need to carry duplicate files around with me. Getting Mp3 files to stream fast enough eluded me though, so it is a work in progress but still nice to see work... for free!
While I was on the patio though, a bit of serendipitous luck happened. An older gentleman in line had commented on my Paul McCartney Steebs card, which he had only seen once before way out east. He struck up a conversation with me again while I was out on the patio with my laptop; turns out he is from a company that designs aviation software and who are looking for a technical writer to update / expand their manual. While not comitting to anything or overstating my own qualifications, I settled with getting in touch with him fairly soon to discuss the matter. Which also meant I had to update my Soronos.com site for the first time in... 5 years? Longer? Darn it, these things sneak up on you sometimes!
Oct 23 - Free Budgets
I have been looking at various ways to stretch my savings and lower my monthly budget pain, as you may have guessed from my decision to remove cable TV from my bills - for now. I have also discovered that my computers heat the place rather nicely without any additional help, given its relatively small size, as I mentioned in previous blog posts. Given that my electric bills have been rather low, and my gas bills correspondingly small, the plan seems to be working this far; with average temperatures at night here hovering around 6 degrees and interior temperatures at around 24, with no additional heat sources, I find things are balanced quite nicely.
Another place I came across with tons of great savings ideas is The Dollar Stretcher. This site is packed with great ideas to make one's budget stretch, and does not involve anything drastic such as growing your own vegetables in the bathtub or living by flashlight once the sun goes down.
One thing I have always found exorbitantly expensive is... MS Office. Even the Student Edition is far too expensive, though it HAS come down( a little )since my university days. A fantastic FREE atlernative is OpenOffice, affectionately known as 'OOo' on the 'net. This is an open-source, community-driven alternative to MS Office that does ALL the same things... for free. Better yet, it can read and save MORE formats than MS's product can, and is constantly being updated, again for free. So if you balk( like me )at spending money every few years for MS's bloatware, give Open Office a try... I've been using it for years and can attest it works as well as MS's products. Without the cost.
Oct 24 - Here's a tip
Someone left me a tip today at work, something that has very rarely happened in all the years with the company; they are officially discouraged for various reasons which I will not get into. Despite my protests though, a gentleman left me $20.00 when all was said and done, stating that he enjoys the fact that I am "Always friendly, efficient and well-spoken" when dealing with him. I thanked him and said that if he took a comment card with him to fill out to that effect, it would make my day. Hopefully it reaches head office, where it may offset the next insane person who walks in the door... more on that concept a few paragraphs down from here.
Again on the subject of cost savings, I am debating cancelling my Vonage line in Niagara... somewhat. It sees infrequent use, with few people to date using it to call me for free way, way out here in BC. I understand everyone's busy; so am I... but for now I am still on the fence about maintaining an easy link back east, unused as it is. Ah well.
Oct 25 - Lunch? Couch?
I had lunch today at The King & Thai( pun! )in Cook St. Village with a friend of a co-worker; the Thai restaurant is part of a mini-food court at the Village that will be expanding shortly. While the prices are not cheap, the portions are good, the place has two sunny patios AND best of all: it's good food! We ended up chatting about all sorts of tech topics over at Starbuck's until well into mid-afternoon, when the sun finally arced down enough to splash Steeb's patio with some warming rays. I have to admit, I am still adjusting to the concept of 'outdoor weather' here - people seemed perfectly content to sit outside in ten-degree weather, as long as the sun was shining, even if it was without much warmth. Dressing in layers and taking advantage of every decent weather day seems ingrained in folk around here, whereas I am used to holing up somewhere warm, or dashing from home to places with good heating and back again to a warm car.
In the evening, I worked on a few projects, including a little more on what I am tentatively titling "Half Lives" which is the story idea I had this past summer. I have several outlines plotted for it, and have been searching them for clichés on the 'net to avoid retreading ground others have written already. More on this as I develop the structure and get at least five chapters solidly written out... once I decide on WHICh chapters to write as a test, that is!
Late in the evening I nodded off for a while, which was nice as I did not know I was that tired: bonus nap! I haven't done that in a while, not since we sold off the extremly Comfy Couches that we had hauled around for years. Damn, I miss those couches... light, easy to move, and very nap-friendly.
Oct 26 - Sunny day, grumpy people
The fourth Sunday in a row I have worked so far has again turned typically beautiful outside, but since I was out for so long yesterday in decent weather I feel little longing to do the same today. Aside from the usual instinct to be anywhere BUT stuck at work, that is... but we all feel that way, most days.
Days like today tickle memories at the back of my head, of school days and crisp weather with winds tossing leaf piles to and fro across the ground. Bright sunshine and autumn colours always make me smile, for like Christmas, this time of year I find it easiest to summon memories I thought forgotten.
Yesterday was supposed to be when the old Daylight Savings Time for the fall season kicked in, but with the new DST brought into play back in 2007, it won't take effect until Nov. 2nd. Nice to see that we are keeping time with the USA so easily... good old Canadian sitck-up-for-itiveness. You can check your correct local time easily at TimeAndDate.com, which is detailed enough to take into account things like those few cities in BC that do NOT use DST - yes, there ARE places like that still around.
A bit of grim elderly humour today: I heard a faint rapping coming from the front area, yet the doorbell had not gone off. Going up front, I saw an elderly man standing at the front door with a walker, tapping his keys on the door. I motioned for him to come in... and spent the next 15 minutes trying to get him to use the unlocked front door. Apparently his strength, if you call it that, was not such that he could easily open our front door... a first, in my experience, for this location. Even writing large signs on scrap paper did not help, as it turns out he could barely see. Finally, after a few well-choreographed pantomimes of pulling hard on a door, I managed to get him into the branch... where he promptly complained that if I saw him having trouble, why had I not rushed out to help? I explained the concept of a secure area, but I think he was not really interested in any answer I was giving him. I hope that if I get that feeble in my years, that I will recognize my lack of strength and take steps to ensure I never spend time tapping at open doors, waiting to be let in... grumpily.
On that note, I headed home in the dark, eagerly awaiting NEXT Sunday, when I will be able to head home in something other than total darkness. Some NWN time, as well as listening to SG: Atlantis commentaries while typing up the blog... and here we are.
It seems we have a dearth of comments of late - I can see that people are reading the blog, which is GREAT... but few comments. Is it that I cover all the bases, or are people so stunned at the end that they forget to comment? I just can't tell.
