Laptops, Lifestyle and Longevity

The Word of the Week is... allegory.

July 5 – Writing Art

Now here’s something to start things off with a smile: handwriting. My own handwriting is awful; it’s inconsistent, loopy and messy, with no style and oftentimes I go back to make letters more legible. I’m certain that any handwriting analyst would have a field day examining it, and I may send in a sample myself out of sheer curiosity one of these days just to find out if my many quirks are made manifest in the ragged loops of my penmanship. But, I’m in good company, as William Shakespeare is known to have had an awful signature. Despite which, it’s worth several million dollars, so there’s hope for me yet!

From art to tech as art: what do you get when you combine dozens of GPS units, a van, and a video camera? This, of course: a mobile work of art that has to easily be the most annoying thing I’ve heard in a long time. Eerily so though; so many voices chanting together might just summon some ancient Roman Road God if let loose long enough, so watch the papers for that...

July 6 – Crows or Ducts?

Living on Vancouver Island has its perks: lots of green space at your doorstep, fresh air... and wildlife. Rare as it might be elsewhere, there’s a lot of natural life running around here on the island, especially on Bear Mountain where you have to be on the lookout for wild deer 24/7 when driving, as they are totally unafraid of cars and will nibble on the roadside grass without a twitch as cars pass by mere feet away. Somewhat more rare: a white raven was recently spotted on VanIsle, which would probably confuse the heck out of Edgar Allen Poe should he have ever seen one. Perhaps it is adaptive camouflage, so that it can soar unnoticed in the clouds? Ravens are known to be clever as well as sneaky creatures...

Speaking of crafty, a few months ago I had a customer come into the branch to pay for something with cash he pulled from his wallet... made out of duct tape. When I asked where he had got such an oddity, I expected him to say he had made it, but apparently it was a gift from his wife who bought it while in the USA. A quick search found this great Guide to Crafting A Duct Tape Wallet, which easily falls under the 1,001 Things You Can Do with Duct Tape site. That customer said he had had it for several years and it was still holding up strong, moreso than several leather wallets he had had previous. My question: how do you stop it from going all sticky in the heat?

July 7 – Hot Lap Movies

Yeah, it’s hot here... not nearly as hot as it was / is out east, but still sweaty-uncomfortable in a room with little airflow. Like my room:

Nice setup, I have to say... except for the lack of A/C, but that only matters for less than a week of days every year, so I’ll take it over all the other places I’ve lived in so far here in BC, and that’s saying a lot. I still want to make one of these homebrew heat exchangers that I first found out about three or so years ago – simple, cheap and ingenious, that’s me in a nutshell. Plus, I tend to worry a lot about my technology, especially the more expensive bits whose warranties have run out – hence my recommendation for all laptop owners to check out 9 Tips For Using Your Laptop In Warm Or Hot Weather. It’s important to know the limits of your hardware, before you discover them the hard way... with the smell of burning.

Last week I mentioned that I rarely ever rent a movie, and it seems I am not alone: news this week that Blockbuster’s stock is being delisted on the NYSE. That’s just crazy to think that such a huge market could switch in such a relatively short time, to the point where people are going direct through pay-per-view rentals on cable or satellite. Whither the DVD, I wonder? Is everything going to be on iTunes sooner, rather than later? And where are we all going to find the time to watch all these things?

July 8 – Social Drive

I’ve mentioned before about social circles, about how many people you meet in your lifetime and how many you remember. How about 6,000 people who are memorable, that you would want to meet sometime before you met your maker? Sound interesting? That’s what The Six Thousand purports to be a list of: "6000 intriguing people you want to meet online before you die.” Seems like a bright, brainy bunch to me – certainly people who’d have a lot of interesting things to say over coffee or a drink. I wonder how many of us can say the same?

Amongst all the other things vying for my time and interest are my more-than passing, less-than-obsessive researches into upgrading my old laptop. I just love the idea of keeping a solid machine out of the landfill / recycling shop; I’m typing up most of my blog entries of late on it, whilst over at The Mountain Bean. It’s quite thrilling to be able to access shared folders on my other laptop securely across the wireless VPN connection, even if it isn’t all that fast or all that good for video – not yet anyway, that’s coming in the new year. For now, I’m debating getting one of these old-style large-capacity drives( it’s so damn cheap!!! )or a nice SSD for speed and low power consumption... mainly the speed. We’ll see shortly what I decide - probably whatever is cheaper.

July 9 – On Friends

Happy Birthday Rene! Today segues neatly into the topic of birthdays: past, present( pun intended )and future. Up until your teens birthdays were events, things to look forward to for weeks: inviting friends, having family over... at least at my house, birthdays were crowded, happy events where the place was full of life and laughter. Having a birthday in the summer meant memories of sunshine, party hats, a picnic table crowded with cake and paper plates, party favours and a small table of presents. Smiles were on everyone’s faces, kids were running around playing while the adults chatted and kept an eye on the cake to ensure nobody snuck a finger into the icing. Once the teen years hit, the parties tended to become more laid back affairs, graduating to out-of-home celebrations at the local pubs as soon as we could all afford to do so legally( and sometimes even not ). Once I hit my thirties, these affairs became smaller and more intimate, with a circle of close friends gathering to hoist a few cold ones and catch up with each other, for we saw far less of one another now than those days when we were all in school together. Moderation crept in, so that now a few beers in good company will more than suffice in comparison to ten or so years ago, when everyone bought the birthday person a drink... sometimes to excess, sometimes just a little less so. Now that I am here in BC, away from my circle of close friends and unable to raise a toast in person to their health on their birthdays, I find myself missing such a simple act. Let it be said that the small things in life are the most treasured, for you truly don’t notice their importance until you have already noticed their lack.

July 10 – Typing Cool

Okay, okay... this week’s blog should be called “All about laptops” but hey, it’s something I use every day, so there you are: talk about what you know! One thing everyone can relate to is trying to get a decent wireless signal, which can be difficult if you live in a place where there are a ton of other networks filling the limited airwaves. Since I started using wireless networks five or so years ago, I’ve become fairly good at customizing my networks to ensure they don’t overlap on the other ones in my area, maximizing my signal and also ensuring it’s as secure as possible. HowToGeek.com has a great Guide To Optimizing Your Wireless, which is really informative – you’ll learn a lot about your neighbours too, probably not what they intended either.

There’s some darn cool tech out there, mixed in with a whole lot more that’s really only cool for a while until you realize you don’t use most of what it’s capable of – most modern cell phones are cases in point. For a while, I really loved keyboards; the more multi-function buttons on them, the better! On and off, I’ve enjoyed watching out for the coolest keyboards out there, and for the last few years the winner has been the Optimus Popularis out of Russia, of all places. It’s finally hitting the market later this year, and it promises to be a revelation for those who need it. Not me though; I’ve found that regular laptop keyboards suit me just fine, as I don’t use any proprietary programs like Photoshop that can make full use of multitudes of esoteric keyboard shortcuts.

July 11 – Energy Sweat

Of late I’ve been feeling really blah, despite the lovely sunny weather; it reminds me of the years when I was working nights, when the sight of a sunny day would send me into a sleepy doze. Fortunately, I managed to kick that reaction soon after going back onto daytime shifts, but the twitch still remains, especially at the low-ebb mid-afternoon nap-times of the day. More time spent walking each day might help pick me up, but my motivation on my days off has been severely lacking. Not a lot of fun in that; I've read that adding fish oil to your diet boosts your metabolism, so I'll work that into my more-energy-for-fun plans in the coming months.

This was my weekend off, of which I spent a good part going through things in the storage unit( again )to prep for sale. A fair lot of it too, when all was said and done. I put a half-dozen highly collectible things on eBay yesterday, and had already sold one by today – no more Ecto-1 on my shelf taking up space. For relaxation, I spent goodly parts of both days playing Battlefield: Bad Company 2 on the Xbox, which I found refreshingly enjoyable despite the heat build-up in my room – sweat and controllers don’t mix well. As always, it was great to be able to game with my friends in real-time over great distances. I do miss the halcyon days of tabletop board games and Halo LAN parties, but things change and we have to make do with what means we can find to stay in touch while getting on with our own paths. Just being able to game a few times a month is special, in its own way – there are some of my friends I rarely talk to, even given the easy of instant email communications. Not much to say, or not much new? Who knows.  

Next week should be a crazy one – my mom’s going in for a serious operation requiring 8 weeks of recuperative time, so my dad and I will be spending all of our free time at home to ensure her recovery is as comprehensive as possible. We all hope her quality of life will improve when all is said and done, making her retirement years ahead a thing to enjoy.