Sneezing, Sodas and Stress

This week sort of blurred by... kind of like my vision did too. So that's the word of the week - if you can see it.

Feb 8 – Stuffed

Starting the week mostly by killing Kleenexes is not a good thing, as I worked through whatever has decided to invade my system. I didn’t get much done outside of napping, as I’m finding it difficult to focus. No sign of it being man flu though, which is good, and I’ve had my H1N1 and flu shots both. Hopefully it’s only a short-lived bug.

Yeesh... how bad is sugar for you? A recent study found that people who drank more than two sugary sodas a week have increased rates of certain cancers; not good. I myself drink only root beer, at the rate of about a bottle every week and a half. Not a lot, but looking at the study data, I should cut back. Sugar as a whole seems to be more and more maligned as part of one’s diet, though substituting other things like Oelstra might not be a good idea either...

Do any of you lovely readers out there in the wild use Twitter? I’ve not dabbled in this new medium of communication yet, mainly for the fact that I haven’t found a use for it – as someone else famously once said about the internet, for that matter. As for Twitter: does it matter to some of you? Or not at all?

Feb 9 - Surprise on a Sick Day

Riviting: we had a surprised audit at work today, and frustratingly I didn’t do as well as I’d hoped. Weighted audits are like that; miss an initial or a question and the whole house of cards collapses. I understand that audits are in place to ensure you’re doing your job, yet how does it help managers who work their asses off every minute of every day and STILL have things like this come down on them? Does it improve morale? No. Improve productivity? No. It does instill an imminent sense of failure, in that no matter how hard one works, there will always be something they miss that will bring the entire house down. Which if it were an actual house, I would understand; Mike Holmes is always going on about how one little hidden error can cost thousands. Yet with my job, customer service comes first... employee development second, and paperwork third. Guess what got dinged on the audit? Yeah. My work isn’t my life, and if I make it my life in order to be the 'perfect' manager, where does that leave me? Without time or energy to do anything else - that's called a conundrum, and not a compromise I am willing to make.

At least the construction downstairs has not been of the over-loud variety in the last few weeks. They have reached the fit-and-finish stage of things, where items such as carpets and paint are being put in; all the heavy cutting, hammering and sawing looks to have been completed. As it stands right now, we are not considering moving downstairs when our lease is up, as our brief inquiries as to the new monthly rent for the lower suite has shown the price to be substantially higher than the previous tenant’s was. So we’re now actively looking for accommodations in the area that will suit our budget, and hope to have such in place well before the end of the year and our lease, as such.

Feb 10 - Old is New Again

Small is the new big, at least when it comes to new homes. At the recent International Builder’s Show in Las Vegas, smaller homes were all that people were talking about. Using the space you have wisely, maximizing its potential, is what the market seems to be shifting towards. You can also use this handy Affordability Tool to see what your future space might shape up as. Mine looks to be a cross between a moon rocket and a single-room treehouse, both of which may not be mutually-exclusive concepts...

This week I’ve popped in my copy of Undergrads to watch the first( and only, sadly )season again. The short run that the show had on television has not hurt its popularity, as it continues to gather a following through word of mouth( like this blog, fr’instance! ). I have found it to be very rewatchable, with great character designs and excellent writing that captures the college / university experience, as penned by the show’s creator Pete Williams – how could you go wrong with a first name like that?

On my own creative side of things, I’ve worked on a few ideas that I’ve had for articles this week, though neither are fiction stories. One concerns the direction people are taking when it comes to media, and the other looks at how people are forming their own social networks – both topics I have an opinion on I feel worth sharing. As for the fiction: more on that as I wrestle the creativity from its hiding spot.

Feb 11 - Better Data

I’m feeling a little better about the audit from earlier in the week, as word has come down the pipeline that Dire Things are not going to happen from the generally spotty results of the area’s audits. Apparently they were done more to gain an idea of what needs improving than to set up forms of punishment for people. Which is nice, but still stressful – but that’s life.

Ones and zeros: the basic building blocks of data. I’ve mentioned before that I plan on getting an SSD( solid state drive )for my laptop eventually... but I’ve never explained why. Now the basics of the SSD can be read about here courtesy of Gizmondo.com, and you can see why they’re the future of data storage. So your YouTube videos, vacation pictures and chain letters to friends will be more accessible than ever.

Today I renewed my XboxLive Gold membership for another year; despite my using it only a few times a week, I still like the access it gives me to friends and games, in that order. I also like the occasional deal that crops up, like this week’s ½-off sale on Turtles in Time, an update of the classic TMNT side-scrolling fighting game from the 80’s that I remember playing for the first time in an arcade on Yonge St. So... cowabunga dudes!

Feb 12 - Fragility

With my shifting around of some staff from my store, I ended up having the day off today – mostly. I went in with one staffer to open the store, and then was off to do things in Victoria until well into the afternoon – including a stop at Arby’s for a Chicken Bacon sandwich that was decently tasty, but the curly fries left something to be desired. I spent part of the afternoon sorting paperwork, filing things that have piled up over the last few months – necessary, but not very noteworthy I’m afraid. I still wish for the day when I can just feed the lot into a scanner and store them all electronically, but that is still neither practical for speed initially nor safe for the long-term storage of such documents. So far, I’ve only found one brand of CD-ROM by Maxell that guarantees a hundred-year data lifespan; not good.

Today ended on a low note: while I was watching television in the evening, my glasses decided to quietly divide themselves in two and fall off my face. They are a frameless design, and I wouldn’t recommend such a design to anyone as of now, due to their inherent fragility and the virtual impossibility of easy repairs. So for now, I’ll be using my contacts at work, and the taped-together pair of glasses while at home, at least until I find a cost-effective location to purchase a new pair.

As to that television I watched:  I tuned into the opening ceremonies to the Winter Olympics despite myself. The spectacle was hard to resist, with huge numbers of cast, colourful costumes and my favourite: special effects. The projected images, lighting effects and overall production standards were incredibly impressive, and I found myself smiling throughout the show as I watched it on my big screen.

Feb 13 - Hurty Head

Due to having yesterday off, I worked today instead. Overall, it wasn’t half-bad, being fairly steady but without any crazed-rush periods that seem to mark Fridays of late. People are getting their T4’s this week and next, so we should start seeing lineups for taxes any day now; a good thing, but not if people all decide to file their taxes at the same time of day. One problem we run into as well is that some folk rush to file their taxes as soon as they get a T4 slip... instead of waiting until their other T4’s arrive. Which then causes problems when they sheepishly come back in a few weeks later to try to file again...

By day’s end, I had a migraine that I largely attributed to eyestrain, from my being unused to wearing contacts for a prolonged period – it’s been more than three years since the last time I regularly used contacts. Luckily I had kept the backup contacts I had left on hand, as they were ones that I received along with my glasses that have now failed. The lot expires later in the year, but that means I can still see until then. For now I’ll be sure to JUST wear the contacts during work shifts and take them out as soon as I get home, as I’m not really thrilled with the headaches they’ve induced. They are the proper prescription, but the focal distances are disparate – the eyes focus at a different distance with glasses.

Thankfully, I seem to be mainly over whatever it was I was coming down with this time last week. My slaying of Kleenexes has lessened to the point of a few an hour, and I’ve managed to begin regular breathing through my nose again – the world of smells has returned. Which given the stale indoor air of the winter season, is not saying much. I’ve yet to see most homes convert over to fresh-air heat-recovery systems, which would see home air quality improve a great deal, given the well-sealed state of most homes in Canada. Except for those in BC, where just having insulation in the walls gets you high marks.

Feb 14 - I Heart Blog

Given today’s date, of course I have to write about love. Over the years, I’ve been a member of all the various online dating sites( mostly the free ones, of course )and found very little of substance there. Like it or not, the only way to meet new people is to actually go out, but in that context I’ve always found bars my least favourite place to do so. For the nonce, I’m busy enough that adding another half to that equation doesn’t make sense, but as always the best laid plans usually fail fastest. So no plans, either for today or the near future... and as for the far future, who knows? Maybe a Futurama-esque Lucy Liu?  Should you settle? No. Should you despair that you haven’t found someone yet? No. My theory on this is the longer you are alone, the greater the reward of finding that special someone. My theory, anyway.

Today marks three years since Ryan Larkin passed away. He was a visionary animator from the early 70’s, whose work revolutionized animation and inspired a generation of creative animators. Larkin was the subject of the 2005 Oscar-winning 3D animated short simply entitled Ryan, where his life was examined via CGI for his influence on the genre and his state of mind was brought to light. Lovely work.

I think it’s appropriate to end this week’s blog with a site that offers links to all things bacon. For those who love bacon, what could be better than a list of dozens of places to sate your heart’s desire? Maybe I should also link to a few sites that have cardio-exercise programs too, for that matter... mmm, bacon.

Nertz – my head is again killing me tonight, so I’m going to do some quiet listening to some Starship Sofa podcasts, I think, with silent thoughts about the future.