We passed 900 hits today on The One, The Only... Blog!
March 30 - MoN-DaY Off
My good friend Mike has created a link to The Jinx Project which he will be covering during its creation in a Production Journal, to culminate in a finished animated short by Christmas 2009. I am thrilled to see Mike finally being able to pursue this project that he has talked about for some time, and will wait with bated breath to see the final glorious production. Check out his website too, at MikeHogue.com... tons of great stuff there!
In case some of you don't already know, Brian has also posted a site containing some of his amazing artistic work - check it out at BrianThomasWoods.com!
Unfortunately, not much went on today as I spent most of my day off installing a railing, several door bolts and some replacement cabinet lights. The lights took up the most time, as the display cabinet I now have used the stupidest style of halogen lights - little bulbs with two fragile metal socket pins that are impossible to get into place without bending or eventually snapping. So I snapped too, went down to Home Depot and came back with a set of replacement under-counter light pucks that went in after I removed the useless old ones. Not perfect, but now at least I can replace the bulbs more easily AND the cabinet is brighter, to better show off my selection of collectibles in a dust-free environment. Argh...
On the bright side, I got a last-minute call from one of my former neighbours: it was her boyfriend's birthday and they would love to have me down at May St. to celebrate. So I headed out into a dark, rainy night to drive the 20 minutes to Victoria, and was rewarded with a light, happy few hours basking in the company of good people. I even managed to work in some speedy YouTube video searches at the end, though my performance could not match my last evening spent at Pierre & Faith's place before I left Niagara in late 2007. A good night - with mini apple pies made from local-grown apples right here on Vancouver Island.
March 31 - Beating Family Cancer
One of my cousins has been battling breast cancer for the last few months, since it was diagnosed by a routine exam. I have been amazed at her strength and positive attitude, for she has gone through a lot in an incredibly short period of time. We are all happy here that she is pulling through, and that the internet has allowed the family to remain constantly updated as to her status, moreso than any phone calls might have done. Kudos to the doctors and their treatments... which in Canada won't put you in debt for the rest of your now-spared life.
My money tree seems to be doing well, even though the light here is not the same intensity as it was getting in the window at May St. The official name is Pachira Aquatica, an asian swamp plant which can apparently grow up to nearly 60ft tall in the wild and has been a popular ornamental plant only since 1986. Who knew I was being trendy? I wonder if anyone grows kite-eating trees...
April 1st - Foolish
April Fool's Day... and I had nobody to enjoy a little joke with at work. Last year, I sent around a tiny hoax about a group of scammers dressed as clowns trying to pass bad cheques. This year? Nada.
I always like to check up on how the world is doing by logging into NewsOfTheWeird.com, where you can get your fill of seeing how people manage to mess up reality, large or small.
Another site for odd happenings is at Canoe.ca here you can satisfy your cravings for odd news from around the world. My favourite one to date is
This idea started out as an April Fool's joke, but apparently there was an overwhelming response of people wanting to buy. Just goes to show that sometimes the joke is on the joker.
April 2 - And you thought I'd forgotten!
No joke here: what would the blog be without bacon? In this case, we're talking Squeez Bacon, an invention from( of all places )Sweden... not somewhere I would have picked for bacon know-how.
Thoughts...
Nope. Not this week. Too tired from work, really. Lots going on and frankly, I spend about 11 hours most days away from home, so just BEING at home is enough to make me want to nap on the nearest couch. Not feeling well most days doesn't help, but I DID get some good news today: my gall bladder operation is a go. I go under the knife( scalpel? )May 29th, and so will finally be able to remove THAT little medical issue from my checklist.
I hope it will take the nausea with it when it goes. I really, really do.
If not, then it's back to trial, error and elimination - in more ways than one.
April 3 - Positive Day
I headed into Victoria early this morning, so I could have breakfast at the Shine Cafe on Fort St( their website appears to be down ). I dug into a half-stack of apple cinnamon pancakes, which were delicious and in such quantity that I couldn't finish them in the time I had before needing to be at work. I ate there today because this will be my second-last day at the branch; I am being moved to the Millstream location, which is going to be interesting as it is a glassless location. Makes my fingers twitch just thinking about it as I type.
However, today turned out to be a really good day at work, for many reasons. It was bright & sunny out, so I think that helped a lot. Also, most of the people who came in were regulars, whom I have been telling about my branch transfer as I see them - the nice ones, anyway, and there's a surprisingly large number of those who said they would miss me or even come out to see me when they were in the Millstream area. It was great day, despite the long hours I have spent this week catching things up to hand over the branch to its new manager this weekend. Tired but happy.
Our head office here also received a spectacularly positive customer comment about me today too... it practically glowed when I read it( more than a few times! )with the phrase "If he were my employee, I have no doubt my business would flourish," standing out. The comment was picked up on by the head honcho for all the BC stores and sent out across Canada, with the notation that "This is the kind of positive feedback we want people to give when they come into MMart as customers." Tickled, I was, really... as it's so rare for such comments to be made; a hundred people will take the time to complain than just one to send in a positive note.
Which are you?
April 4 - Floppy what?
Sometimes I feel a little nostalgic about tech, like when I look at my old PC and see there's still a floppy disk drive in it - newer computers are almost all diskless, with even DVD's eventually going to vanish when some new and better flash medium comes along. Still, some tech ideas refuse to die... and my old favourite is on that list - see if you can figure out which of the 25 it is.
Saturdays... y'know, I cannot recall the last time I had a Saturday off without consulting my work calendar. I just don't seem to do things anymore on Saturdays... not that I did much this last year on Saturdays, but thinking about it now, I am going to browse through my blog and see what stands out.
I know I didn't watch a lot of cartoons, that's for sure.
April 5 - 16 hours of Relaxation!
I started the day out right today: Josh called, and before we knew it 45 mins had ticked by while we caught up on things.
Part of my day was spent outside, sitting on the deck and just enjoying the weather - turned out to be 16 degrees C out there mid-afternoon, plus warmth from lovely sunny skies. I even had my cat wandering around the deck, enjoying the weather in perfect safety with no gaps in the railings for him to try wot wriggle through. A few hummingbirds also stopped by, sounding like giant-size wasps as they buzzed in for a drink from the sugar-water feeders.
Other parts of my day were used up working on this new NWN project with a few people... made possible by today's advances in communication. While one of my friends was remotely accessing my old PC to get things installed, I was conferencing with a few others over MSN about various details. Turns out one of those folk has spent 3 years in university taking Game Design, and I cannot believe our luck that he's willing to spend so much of his time helping to shape the initial Design Document to spell out how this new world will be built. It's just lovely to work on this with such talented, energetic people... I only wish we could all pay ourselves for our time, but I guess that's why it's called a labour of love.
I finished off the day by alternatively working on my blog and finally watching The Dark Knight, where I have to say I was impressed with Heath Ledger's final performance. It was a well-deserved Oscar win, and I am sad that it had to be posthumous.
Ta for now!
