The word of the week is: fettle. And it is fine...
Apparently there is concern that some Google AdSense ads are causing a false positive for users of Kapersky Labs AntiVirus today, but it’s not a virus, folks. Have a care when forwarding emails around about such things, as you are only compounding the problem without providing context or a solution. Similar to urban legends, people tend to react first and not actually look into the matter for themselves – when you receive a ‘Warning: Watch Out For...” kind of email, do yourself a favour and take a minute to look into it at places like Snopes.com before you pass on the message, if at all.
Jan 18 – What you hear...
Everyone knows the story of Sir Isaac Newton and the apple, yet I never knew that the story had been written down originally by a friend of Newton himself. The Royal Society of Britain made the original manuscript( among many others )available online today here so you can see for yourself how Newton described the incident as it happened, nearly 350 years ago.
Speaking of Apples, there’s a lot of buzz about their upcoming tablet computer. Much like the iPhone which has conquered the cell phone world with its ease of use and massive support, a table computer may be the Next Big Thing. Which would be good, as the Apple Newton failed miserably when it came out – ironic, eh?
I almost forgot the bacon - how about some bacon fashion clothing?
Jan 19 – The New CPU arrives!
What should I find arriving at my door this morning( my day off! )but the new CPU I had ordered from eBay last week? The X9000 arrived in a sealed box in perfect shape – nobody had sat on it or done a lot of the other things I’ve seen in the years of ordering by mail. I was very lucky to get it; it was the ONLY one of the OEM X9000’s left on eBay from the last year of watching and waiting. I wasn’t about to order some of the more questionable ‘test’ and ‘sample’ chips from Taiwan or elsewhere, especially for no real difference in price. It took about two hours to install, most of which was spent patiently cleaning the old thermal paste from the bottom of the copper CPU die – it had to be done with rubbing alcohol and a lot of patience, as the copper would scratch easily if more vigorous methods were used. Scratches and expensive CPU heat dissipation are a BAD combination. Once it was installed according to some helpful online instructions, my laptop booted up perfectly and it’s running MUCH cooler while being much faster. I’m VERY pleased, as the old CPU ran FAR too hot even when idle during the summer months here, when there’s no A/C to be had. Considering that the X9000 CPU was only available in top-end notebooks costing $3000( or more )when it came out in early 2008, I’m pleased that I managed to get one for a LOT less than that 2 years later – thanks, eBay!
Something I wish had been cheaper at first blush were Google stocks a while ago, when they were first offered. Now there’s a site that examines Google’s IPO five years later here – interesting to see how things have developed since then.
And who knows where some people will be in five year’s time, especially celebrities. Given the fickleness of fame, one has to wonder if the world will remember even a fraction of the currently-famous flocks. For example, who the heck is Emmanuelle Chriqui? I hadn’t heard of here until I saw the 2010 List of the Most Desirable Women in the World; apparently she tops it rather well for someone I’ve never heard of until this month.
Jan 20 – Taxing SAD Jokes
We started taxes today... though nobody actually came in to do theirs, as most people will be waiting some time for their T4’s and related slips to arrive. I’m not thrilled this year about my own tax situation, as the CRA saw fit to re-assess my moving costs to BC from two years ago. I suppose it could have been worse for the overall amount, but I’m peeved that the tax software I used online didn’t mentioned a thing about LIMITS to moving cost claims – and of course the fine print about “money back guarantee” applies only to fines levied due to errors, and not reassessments from the CRA.
Subject to many a joke, the life of an RPG gamer is rife ground for comedic relief and especially amusing to those who have player an RPG or two in their time. King of RPG’s examines the amusing anecdotes that pop up during game sessions, when players try to stare down the DM and the DM tries to remember what he said the blacksmith looked like in the last game session. Apart from being a battle of wills vs boredom, gaming sessions provide a fun way to forget that your store is being audited on Monday once the weekend game session is over...
Which is why I’ve been enjoying walking to work to relieve stress and have some quiet thinking time for myself. More often, I am walking home afterwards as it only takes about 25 minutes and I don’t arrive in a sweat – at least not in the winter. Cycling is better when it’s warmer and drier, especially if there’s the possibility of ice... so far this winter, not a whole lot of that, thankfully. Also, walking doesn’t make your face red from the windchill, which happened to me when I was riding to our Fort St. store last year, necessitating some aloe applications a few times a day. Not fun.
Jan 21 – Beat the blahs
Living in Langford has been pretty good so far, as it’s rather quiet in the winter( nobody in the park next door save the occasional all-weather fisherman )yet we’re a ten-minute cycle ride from the Westshore Mall. Everything here is brand-new, all built in the last 20 years, as the area used to be just dirt roads and cow pastures. Unlike the precious fruitlands in Niagara that are under threat from developers, land here is mainly covered in trees and nothing usually goes up on the many hills save the occasional house – and it’s a long steep drive up to get there every day.
I’ve been using a small sunlamp during the winter for the last few years, on those days when the sun is nowhere to be had and I’m while I’m not feeling SAD the winter blues are hovering around. So far, it has kept my energy levels up when the sun hasn’t been around to help. I do enjoy the fact that my workplace has floor-to-ceiling windows that let in a LOT of light, at least when I’m up the front – no working in a windowless cubicle all day.
January is the perfect time to beat those winter blahs with Bioware. Games like KOTR or the more recent DragonAge can easily pull you into a gamespace far removed from the cold, dark days that dawn so often when winter is around. Some BioWare games are cold and dark too, like BioShock( and BioShock2 is released on Feb 9th )which I haven’t yet finished – like so many games, I find the journey is more fun than the destination. Which can be said for a lot of things, when you think about it.
Jan 22 – X, Y, Dr. Zed?
Who knew that men’s chromosomes were a powerhouse of evolutionary development? I certainly didn’t, especially after hearing a few jokes that Y chromosomes are simply defective X chromos that caught Mother Nature’s fancy a while back for amusement. Makes me wonder about things like male nipples and women’s unwanted facial hair...
In terms of change, the human condition itself tends to change very little. One of the more seminal works of fiction on this is A Canticle for Leibowitz, which is also about life after the apocalypse. Relating the novel to The Book of Eli is done very well in this article, which has an excellent series of comments tagged on it – worth a look.
Tonight saw an unprecedented amount of Borderlands being played, as we had a total of 4 players: myself, Glitch, Lucas and Salizhar – it was a blast! The game takes a little getting used to when playing with four people, but it speeds up completing quests a lot when one person can traipse off to cash in while the other three head off on the next quest – not to mention the extra firepower making a difference in zapping bad guys and the bigger boss battles. Always better with friends.
Jan 23 – Fowl Weather
Ouch – the barometer here on Vancouver Island dropped quite a lot this week to 98 kpa from 102, like the one ON used to do on a weekly basis like a yo-yo. So my head has been rather uncomfortable, despite the application to Tylenol. The upside? Sunny weather is a-comin’ when the barometer swings the other way, so that’s always a change to look forward to. Just don’t yell when it starts happening please...
Ah, Port Dalhousie... I miss quite a few things about Niagara and Port ranks right up there with many of the fun memories I have with friends. I just read today that Chicken Chucking is becoming an event unto itself in Niagara, part of the Fowl Fest being organized this year by Port Dalhousie merchants. So if tossing frozen fowl on a( hopefully )frozen pond while enjoying the company of friends sounds like a lot of fun, head on down there – I enjoyed the event years ago, though I didn’t score much except a T-shirt for Best Event Player Name. No plaque or trophy though.
An idea I had a few years ago but didn’t have the programming skills to create has now appeared online. Cooking By Numbers takes what you have in your fridge and cupboard and turns it into a recipe for you to use. Great for those who don’t like to cook, are bad at cooking or just too busy that particular day to pop back out to the store for a few more ingredients.
Jan 24 - Spaced
This week I picked up Sins of a Solar Empire, which is a highly-moddable 3D 4x game( in the sense of movement and battles )like another classic 4x space empire game fave of mine, Homeworld. Which was also like the old DOS game Ascendancy, whose only claim to 3d fame was a wireframe rotatable model of the ‘universe’ which may have consisted of some sixty-odd solar systems to explore overall. You can actually still get Ascendancy here, where there are also a TON of old DOS games to browse for FREE - my favourite kind of game! (the free ones, not the DOS ).
I’ve really got to go and see some movies in the next few months, before they disappear from the big screen and I’m forced to watch them in the comfort of my own home away from the general publ... hey, wait a sec there! Why subject yourself to that? I’ll look for Legion, The Book of Eli and even Alice In Wonderland on DVD later this year – who wouldn’t want to see Johnny Depp as The Mad Hatter?
I’ve been experiencing some annoying Blogger.com glitches while posting my blog from MS Word the last few weeks: Word has a blog feature where you can publish from inside the program with a single click, but Blogger.com apparently thinks that means replace a RANDOM blog entry, not ADD a NEW entry. So I’ve had to reconstruct the last blog entry every time for the last few weeks, which is annoying to reformat etc. I’ll have to find another way of doing things, as it’s become more trouble than it’s worth despite the ease of typing within Word and not a web-based window that can blank with a misclick... inducing a lot of screaming and hair-pulling. Ouch.
For those who asked: The links you found above are for things that interest me specifically and are not random searches. My blog concerns things that concern me, my thoughts, interests and various hobbies. While I’m not a windsurfer, woodcarver or waterclock maker, I DO find a lot of things that catch my interest – hence my writing about them in my blog. If you enjoy even a few of my words, then that’s all I can ask. :-)
