Moved, Microsoft and Marathons

The word of the week is tuckered... yes indeedy.

April 12 – Running for the Force

Terry Fox – it was 30 years ago today he began his run across the country, destined to never finish it. You know the story, which I still find incredible... to take on such a huge challenge and find the nation behind you by its end still resonates with me today. Terry will live on in Canadian’s hearts forever.

What is ‘Star Wars Uncut” you ask? It’s a scene-by-scene recreation of the original feature film, created from over 500 clips submitted by literally hundreds of people. Have a look below...

April 13 – Forever Clocks

Urban legends: they bother me sometimes, like when rumour trumps fact in people’s minds. Such is the case with Tommy Hilfiger, whom last week my co-worker assured me had been on Oprah and announced to the world that he was... er, racist? Sceptical as I was, I was willing to take the statement at face value at first, but then the logical side of my brain kicked in and I found out the truth online. So I encourage everyone to check things out for themselves first, and don’t give rumour a chance to set in.

Stories like that classic The Time Machine and others concerned with humanity’s longevity on earth have always fascinated me. What will life be like a thousand years from  now? A hundred thousand? A million? Well, some of the same people who have thought along those lines have created the Clock of the Long Now, designed to tell time for 10,000 years. Imagine that: something designed to last twice as long as the great pyramids have stood, keeping time accurately the whole while without succumbing to age of decay – pretty cool stuff. You can see another photo of the Clock’s mission statement here.

April 14 – Moving Minus One

I was off work around 3pm, heading home to spend the next 11 hours finalizing the packing for the move. There are still a ton of things to organize, pack and get ready for tomorrow; we’re taking boxes and smaller things to the storage facility as well as the condo storage site so as to make less for the movers to deal with. As it is, they’ll have their work cut out for them to make the 4pm deadline for us to be done the move by... which is later than the standard 1pm given to most tenants, I have to say. I went to bed very, very tired but also excited to have this all behind me by the end of the day tomorrow.

Today was a day the world slowed down a bit, with the massive eruption of an Icelandic volcano. The ash cloud that spewed into the atmosphere brought air travel to many parts of the world to a halt due to the danger posed to aircraft engines if ash were to be sucked in. With over 60,000 flights cancelled this is somewhat similar to the oil price spike of 2008, which saw several airlines go under. Glad I’m not in need of world travel right now... or have to pronounce the name of the volcano: Eyjafjallajokul !

April 15 – Moving Day

Up at 6am to get a few last things in order before the movers arrived a little after 8am. We had three guys and their largest panel truck, who went to work right away getting the heavy stuff organized. I made a few trips to the storage unit while the truck was loading; they were on their way to the condo a little before 11am. By then I was cleaning the house in preparation for the inspection report; that took a while, but I can honestly say we left it cleaner than it was when we moved in. Empty too, for that matter. I won’t miss the house as much as the views it had over the lake, as well as the location – walking to work in 20 minutes is nothing to be sneezed at, especially if you’re on a lazy back street. The place had its share of problems, including an almost total lack of insulation, but I’m glad I had the chance to live there to experience what I did in that kind of house. Glad too that I didn’t buy the place; I’m renting for now at the new condo, and making myself wiser in the field of condo ownership. Maybe.

Today’s the Income Tax deadline in the States, when people are panicking close to the wire in order to file without penalties. I thought I would mention it, as our own Canadian deadline is a more sensible April 30th. Have you filed yours yet?

April 16 - Recovery

Wow, talk about tired... I know I was tuckered after the last move, but this one really put the whammy on me. I was moving at breakneck speed the whole time non-stop to make sure everything got done – and it did – but I paid the price today in feeling like I had someone’s thumbs digging into my eyesockets all day at work. I spent my evening slowly recovering as I continued to unpack, as well as move things from the storage area below as need be. I think this place will be fantastic for me once I’m settled in, as I have a lot more privacy and so more ability to do things like write, podcast and generally relax quietly.

Good gosh – Microsoft doing something to help its users fix their computers – for free? It was announced this week that MS is releasing Windows Fix It Center into beta-testing this week, allowing users of WinXP and Vista to access some of the repair functions of Win7. Now, if they could just fix this blasted memory issue with MY copy of Win7 and not force me to pay fifty bucks USD for ten minutes of support time out of warranty... only 90 days free support from Microsoft is a slap in the face, folks. Ouch.

April 17 – Paint It Red

Downtown was the place to work today, as I filled in my usual 6^th day of work for the week helping them out. Looks like we’re short a few managers in the area for a while, so I’ll be picking up the slack( along with 2 other managers )by running two stores at a time until we get a solution in place. Good for the paycheque( to a point )but lousy for the stress levels and for feeling like you have energy at the end of the day. Fortunately I didn’t have any crazy a-holes walk into the store today, which was a surprise – usually there’s at least one “My damn glass is half-empty so I want a new one AND a refill free!” type who makes life less better for staffers. Again, I wish our tiger pit button wasn’t broken currently...

We’ve been painting the place for the last week, and it continues today as well – there’s no way I’m able to budget professional painters to make the odd off-white colours in here a memory, so we’re doing it ourselves. It’s looking really fantastic now that most of the second coats are done, and we’re hoping that by tomorrow everything can be finally put into place once the paint’s had a chance to dry. Hooray!

April 18 – No Day Off

Today saw the release of a new comic story for Newt and John! Stop reading this blog and go view it now!

After a bit of morning gaming, most of my afternoon was spent moving furniture around and then unpacking boxes to put more things away. Not that exciting, but it was good to see things go from storage disaster to a place resembling a home again. I had the internet and TV’s hooked up early on the 16^th before work too; I was surprised that it went so smoothly, to be honest – no glitches at all.  One little bonus: I can easily watch my 42” TV from my very own soaker bathtub – how cool is that? I’d have been happy with a simple shower stall, but this place is fairly well tricked out, even down to the two dozen expensive and short-lived halogen lights in the ceiling – which we won’t be using much, as there’s a ton of light from the many well-insulated windows. Huzzah!

No afterword this week – need sleep. G’night!