March 8th – When you’re feeling blue...
Looks like the good weather’s finally disappeared here: the rain’s back, and no sign of sun. Which is good, as there’s news that this past winter was the warmest on record for Canada and many other parts of the world.
When I got home today, there was a package waiting for me: my Blue Microphone had arrived! It was a heavy box too; I had it unpacked and set it up within a few minutes. It looked great with it’s shiny aluminum finish, and I quickly got to testing it in the spare bedroom where no outside noise dared interfere. I chose an opening snippet from one of my Nich stories( The Nighthunter )and had it nicely captured within a few takes. It sounded excellent; no mic hum or background noise to speak of. I’m very pleased with the Blue microphone and I’m hoping to use it far more frequently in the near future for podcasts and other audio tasks,
Kudos to Brian for putting me back onto the podcast track... though maybe I should think about creating a unique video with my spare time. Hmmm...
March 9 – Evil Bender!
Wahooo! I didn’t find out about it until now, but last week official news came down the pipe that Futurama is returning to the airwaves! With the entire original cast, no less! More Bender, more Fry, and more Leela to go around for everyone!
Something else that’s caught my eye is the How to Succeed in Evil blogsite, which is basically one writer’s efforts to create content as he goes along in between working at his day job and sleeping. It’s great stuff, and I’ll be putting it on my iPod Nano as soon as the blasted thing arrives at work...
Here’s something else that I’ve wondered about lately: what happens to all your electronic files and websites when you die? Unlike a will, which instructs executors on how to distribute your worldly goods, a ‘digital will’ contains instructions about passwords, payments for websites, blog instructions, etc in case you pass from this mortal coil. Most people don’t think about such things, but for more and more of us, our online lives include people that we’ve never met face to face. To ensure that our friends are informed of our passing( sad as it may be )and that websites don’t shut down, there are new services popping up to enact digital wills – something I’ll be looking into shortly myself, for my own peace of mind.
March 10 – Boom?
I’ve been training a new employee this week at work, and so far it’s been a joy. She’s bright, enthusiastic and quick to pick up on everything I teach her... to the point where she’s chomping at the bit to do more. I have to be careful as a trainer to ensure that she’s absorbing it all, and that her eagerness isn’t squelched but properly channeled into new learning as we progress – there’s a set process that we use here at MMart, and it’s time-tested. I have high hopes for her as time goes on – we’ll see how she does.
From my more-fave-than-freaky site io9.com: two new electricity tech breakthroughs that may change our world. Since one of them involves carbon nanotubes, it has cool written all over it already!
Here’s something that’s bothered me since I was a kid: supernovas. Yes, I’ve harboured a secret dread of exploding stars all my life, ever since I learned that they CAN explode, sometimes without warning – the Crab Nebula is actually a supernova that was first observed by the Chinese in medieval times! Which is why news of a possible nearby supernova sent a shiver down my spine... though it’s not likely to happen for another few million years. If it does, that’s it for this part of the Milky Way. Boom.
March 11 – Potentially Bad News
I had some frustrating medical news today: my test results were back from the lab, and my doctor tells me I am pre-diabetic. Which means MORE changes and restrictions to my diet, if I want to ensure I don’t go full-blown into Diabetes. So yes, one more big thing to worry about – just what I needed right now.
Tonight I also had an appointment with my Optometrist, which did help set my mind more at ease. She wants me to come back in three weeks time after getting my diet settled using a pre-diabetic diet, so she can check again to see what affect that may have had on my vision. And apparently this guy needs new glasses in a bad way too. I mean, what was he THINKING?
Maybe in the future they’ll have over-the-counter tests for most diseases, kind of like the home pregnancy test kits that get less inaccurate every year. One neat idea I’ve seen lately is the 1-cent blood test kit, meant for use in developing countries for quick diagnosis of common diseases. Good thinking.
March 12 – Nein to 9
The last few months at work have shown me that it’s vital to maintain a good working environment – something I’ve worked hard to attain at my branch. It’s always on my mind to ensure that I’m being professional, while also ensuring my staff and I have fun day to day – not easy to do when we’re all stressed. I’m happy to say that I believe I’ve succeeded, as my current staffer who was rather down in the dumps around Christmastime has seen quite a sea-change in mood from dour to delighted on a daily basis. It makes me feel top-notch to know I had a large part to play in making their days better ones.
I managed to watch a film on DVD tonight I’ve been waiting a while for: 9 as presented by Tim Burton. It’s a CGI animated film about the end of the world( love those ones )and the creatures that inhabit the new playing field – little characters made out of sackcloth and thread. It’s dark and has its moments, but I have to admit I was underwhelmed by it overall – a case of great hope not living up to story plot that went all mushy and teary-eyed at the end for no reason. Reminded me of the Final Fantasy movie: all spirit, no heart or head.
Bacon rockets. Yes, it’s become that silly – deal with it, and taste the yummy. Though the guy wearing the Popeye shirt looks like he’s lost a lot of sleep over designing the things...
March 13 – 5, 7, 5 went the rhyme..
And early start to the day: I was on the road before 8am to drive up to Duncan to work at that branch with another manager, as they’re very short-staffed there. The last staff member there gave their notice by text message... so you can imagine how much fun it’s been. It was a steadily busy day, which I spent most of at the counter while the other manager caught the store up on paperwork. Overall, it went very quickly and we managed to put some semblance of order into the place. Tiring, as it was my sixth day straight... and I’ll be doing the same for the next 6 weeks until all the new area staff come online.
I treated myself to several episodes of Crusade tonight, that lamented B5-spinoff series that had such potential but was canceled before any of it could be realized. It had inspired casting, with a solid chemistry and real friendship between all the cast members you could see on screen. I really regret that there was never a hope of resurrecting the series ala Firefly via a movie; I’ve had to settle for gleaning all the behind-the-scenes info I can about what happened, and what might have been.
On a random note: Godzilla is a Japanese creation, as are haiku. What about... combining the two?
March 14 – Seeing Red
Joy of joys. Today I experienced the Xbox 360 Red Ring Of Death: three red lights meaning it’s a general hardware failure. Since it’s still under the 3-year warranty period, I called Microsoft( per this link’s information )and set up a repair return, to send the thing in and see what they can do with it. I’m not sure why it suddenly went crapola; I had it on early in the morning to play a game of Twisted Metal and it was fine. I shut it down and came back to start up again after breakfast, to find that my controller wasn’t locking into a channel; I restarted the Xbox and it went to the Xbox logo screen, then hung. A third reboot brought up the deadly Red Rings... and so now you know why I wrote the following haiku:
I played my xbox
Today, three Red Rings appeared
Tears fell silently.
We also went out twice today to look at three different houses for rent in the area. There was a potential winner with three bedrooms that hit most of the right marks, and as a bonus is even closer to my workplace in Millstream – nice! There’s still the question about the lease though, so I’m making sure to read some tips about leases before I sign anything.
In the evening, I went out to our long-delayed work Christmas party. Where a good time was had by most – I had my ups and downs though, as there always seems to be something that crops up that spoils my mood. In tonight’s case, it was news that something I did in Duncan really cheesed off that store’s manager, never mind that it was unintentional and that I’ve had had no idea at the time I did it. So I spent the rest of my evening at the party trying to enjoy myself, and mostly succeeding due to the excellent company. Yay, fun.
Did you remember to set your clocks forward this weekend, and lose your hour of sleep?
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