Beans, Backup and Batteries

The word of the week is unctuous... you betcha!

June 14 – What the Dell? Already?

A few times a year, Dell.ca has their ‘11 Days of Dell’ sale online, and I always manage to pop into it halfway along, darn it. Last time, I managed to score a Snowball mic from Blue Microphones for half off, and I’m sure there’s a few things in the current sale that may appeal to some of you( but not all ). Not that I advocate buying things just because they ARE on sale, but if you’ve been waiting on a purchase( like I was with the Blue mic )then seeing it for sale by Dell( with free shipping, for the most part! )might just decide you to make the purchase before the price goes back to normal again. That’s the reason I check out Steam online, as they have sales EVERY week on games, like Fallout3 GOTY Edition )that are really worth it if you’ve missed a title previously and want to grab it before it’s gone.

It may seem strange, but I’ve realized that since MMORPG’s like World of Warcraft became popular less than a decade ago, I’ve never jumped at any particular one – I happily blame Neverwinter Nights for that. Also the fact that I don’t feel I should pay someone a monthly subscription to play in their world if it’s not up to my standards of fun and storytelling... and let me tell you, trying to create a roleplaying game for the general public  means that it almost always lacks the depth and substance of plot and play that I require. So the news that Fallout Online is, well, going online is MOST welcome – I’ve been playing my PC copy of Fallout3 this past weekend, and loving it... a little slow, but the craft and story are amazing!

June 15 – Bean there, Backed That Up

Ah, a precious day off... too rare, sadly. I slept in( sort of )until 8am, then fiddled with all three of the  laptops here on and off all day to improve their overall performance and network them together. For the most part, I succeeded – especially in the case of my parent’s laptop, where a cheap RAM upgrade from eBay went hand in hand with a thorough spyware / malware upgrade and a virus scan. It made quite the difference when I was done, I have to say – no more grinding hard drive or strange things going on, not to mention the extremely slow performance. If you haven’t scanned your own PC for malware / spyware / viruses lately, or backed up your precious photos / docs / emails, I now URGE you to do so ASAP... before they’re gone at the caprice of a rogue bit of code. You have been told!

A few hours of my day off were spent today over at the Mountain Bean, where within that time I saw it pour with rain, then turn sunny again. Then rain for five minutes and back to sun – WARM sun too, for that matter. I’ve taken to perching in the window at one of the bar-height tables, with a view of the road and the people passing by – admittedly not a lot of people, but hey, it’s a quiet ‘resort’ and I like it that way. Though not as comfortable as a comfy chair by the fire, it has the advantage of not needing to perch a laptop on my lap... which can get very warm, very fast, and is bad for sperm. Ouch.

June 16 -  Stargate and Immortality

After work tonight I managed to catch an episode of Stargate Universe, which I hadn’t known was now on the program for the local A-channel TV station – I don’t get Space, so I’ve missed a few first-run sci-fi shows these past few years. No biggie, as I prefer to test them out and then purchase them on DVD should they prove worthwhile; that way I can watch them at my leisure and don’t even need a PVR – yet. As first episodes go, I liked it enough to want more, so I’ll catch some more as the summer goes on.

I’d be lying if I said I’ve never thought about my eventual demise... perhaps it is one reason why I love science fiction, if only to see how fiction becomes fact as time passes and technology improves. Recent events have led scientists to consider that suspended animation may be achievable after all... echoes of Woody Allen’s Sleeper, anyone? So far, the only known immortal creature on the planet is... a jellyfish. So unless you can figure out a way to transfer your consciousness into that, you’re out of luck in time.

June 17 – The Roar of Annoyed

Noise. I’m someone who enjoys peace and quiet, the mutter of my thoughts the only thing troubling me. Thus, when a motorcycle five blocks away blasts a nasty string of notes with a throttle-happy hand, I take offense – I know of no other legal way to annoy more people more easily. So it made me smile to hear that the city of Edmonton is enacting a motorcycle noise bylaw next month, to ticket gross noise offenders to the tune of $250.00 should they be louder than acceptable... and a preview by police last week showed that a lot of the bikes on the road there will fail the noise test. Having just moved from a house where three of four driveways had motorcycles parked in them, I have to applaud Edmonton’s new law.

Something I’ve been reading over the last year or so is a classic from antiquity, freely available online at MIT’s Classics Archive. It’s the Meditations of Marcus Aurelius, which I first heard about on, of all things, my fave show Babylon 5 – one of the major characters mentioned he read it, on several occasions. I find it fascinating that an author dead some thousands of years can still speak today to thousands of people, with words that are still relevant to the modern human condition. Gives me hope for my own works too.

June 18 – VOIP MIA and Batteries

After looking at things yet again, I’ve decided to cancel my VOIP service with Vonage by the end of the  summer. Though I only pay $20.00 a month for the service, it’s not worth it for the few calls I get and make each month. I talk to more people via IM, on Skype or using my cell, so having one less bill per month makes more sense – besides, I can always pick up a Magic Jack( albeit with a USA phone number )if I want to use a regular phone. I also still have a Skype-enabled phone here, though the thing has been less than useful a purchase due to the crummy battery life; a lesson in live and learn with your purchases there.

After resurrecting the old Compaq laptop this past month, I’ve found that the battery needs to be replaced. In my research into new batteries, I’ve learned that most laptop owners don’t take proper card of their new laptop batteries to ensure they last as long as possible. Lifehacker.com has a great Guide to Maximizing your Laptop Battery Life, which includes several handy utilities to run and monitor your battery as your laptop is in use... I discovered that my 2-year old laptop’s battery is not optimally charged, so I’ll be correcting that this summer to bring it back to full capacity. Fairly easily too.

June 19 – Drama and Vacation

I’ll be working on some of my stories this coming week while I’m on vacation, including a project that may become a podcast drama... which is very, very exciting. Kudos to Brian for putting me in touch with the folks on that project, as well as point out to me the Submissions Guidelines for Clarkesworld Magazine Online... which unfortunately contain a clause that looks down on stories with puns. Might be a harder job to submit there than I thought...

Today was my final shift this week before my vacation... it was steady but not crazy-busy, which was nice. Silly me though: I should have thought to schedule myself to OPEN, not to close, the branch... and so be able to leave before dinner to start my vacation. Ah well... I’ve been focused on so many things, including balanced schedules for the staff at two branches, that details like that slipped through the growing cracks in my brain. I’ll remember for next time though; I’ve already scheduled my second( ! )summer vacation for the end of August, if all goes well – I have a BIG backlog of vacation hours to use before the end of the year. No plans to visit Niagara though... that looks to be better for Spring 2011.

June 20 -  Dad and Futurama’s Return

T’was Father’s Day today, which was rather low-key around here... we went over to Jack’s Place here in Bear Mountain, named after the famed golfer. It was busy but not crowded, which will change tomorrow when the Telus Skins Golf game gets underway; there has been a flurry of activity all over the mountain this past week. Gardeners perfecting the landscaping, barriers going up to funnel the crowds, and TV camera platforms springing up on the greens within sight.

Tomorrow is Midsummer’s Eve, the longest day of the year... fitting indeed for the debut of the new season of Futurama this week on June 24th, which has not had a new episode on the air since it was cancelled in 2003. I have to say I’m eagerly looking forward to the new episodes, having watched the available current four seasons on DVD and in reruns on TV to the point where I know almost all of them by heart. Having interesting and diverse characters, zany plots and bucketloads of humour is a uniquely difficult thing to do right, so points to creator Matt Groening of Simpsons fame for pushing to get his creation made for as long as he did.

I’m finishing up the blog early tonight to a-bed; I was woken at 3am this morning by a low-battery smoke alarm and so have been a bit groggy today. Why can’t those kind of things ever pick 3 PM to go off? Why?