The Word of the Week is...ignoble.
Aug 9 – Stress Roomies
Today’s Monday, which means... a new Newt And John comic has been released out into the wild! What do I like the most about this webcomic, apart from the fact it’s written by the very talented Mike Hogue? Well, it’s about two roomies... who despite their differences, seem to get along quite well in all their crazy adventures together. It’s about friendship enduring hardships, trust, and boatloads of humour. Never having had a roommate, I find the concept both fascinating and scary – which is why I keep coming back to laugh every week. Thanks Mike!
Laughter is good, because work has me really, really stressed in the last few weeks. I’ve got to get out and exercise more, as well as serious look at some massage therapy – the fall season doesn’t look to be any less stressful, despite new staff coming into the picture. I think what gets me the most is Death By A Thousand Cuts, where it’s all the little details that end up killing you slowly – much like when Londo from B5 quoted Eric Sevareid saying “it’s like being nibbled to death by ducks.” While slow, in the end you still end up perishing, just not as quickly as it would be with, say, a wild cougar.
Aug 10 - Stark Prices
Here’s something I forgot to post a few weeks ago: Iron Man was in town here in Victoria. Specifically, he was here to open the new Best Buy in the city– I was reminded of the openings of a few ToysR’Us stores back in the 80’s with the likes of Mister T and Knight Rider, neither of whom I got to see, due to the massive crowds that gathered. Doesn’t look like the case here:
Keeping up on current prices is always a good idea when you’re in the market for something, be it large or small. I always keep current on costs for computers and entertainment tech in general, as that’s where my interests are. When it comes to cars, I’m not all that current, which is why I’m glad I discovered Consumer Guide Automotive – they have tons of great info that let me have a solid idea of what I should be paying for a given model and year of vehicle. Armed with that info, you can make a far better informed choice when shopping at dealers – remember not to get the extended paint warranty!
Aug 11 - On blogging...
Today I had a thought about my blog, comparing it to a journal – they’re not the same, and don’t serve the same purpose. A journal is more like a diary, where you put down thoughts that will likely never be read by anyone save yourself or by others perhaps in the distant future after you’ve passed on. A blog in the meaning of this one I keep is meant to catch people up on what you’re doing, as well as providing a small means of documenting how your life is going in general every week. It collects your interests at the time, puts the things that you’re working on into better focus and generally lets you get things out that may have been stuck in your brain for a while. I have a lot of those.
Along with my blog, I sometimes have pictures and videos that I plug right in – nice that you can do that these days with almost no effort at all. But what if you want to share some larger files with people, say that video montage that you made from old BlackAdder episodes that isn’t really appropriate for YouTube, or a video game that you’ve slaved on for months? I’ve search for file hosting for a while, found a place called FileFactory that’s decent... but it’s still not ideal, as it has quite a few limits placed on downloads. Maybe Torrents are the way to go now, cloud computing and all that...
Aug 12 - Falling Silicon
Architecture is one of my interests, though I admit it’s more of an admiration of the unique than anything to do with structural engineering – mathematics of that level are simply beyond me without study and practice. One place I keep coming back to look at year after year is Fallingwater, the house constructed by Frank Lloyd Wright that many consider his masterwork. C|Net has a visual tour of the place online as of today, and I think it’s well worth the browse. If I ever come into major money, I would seriously consider building a similar home in a similar setting, here in BC, rather than buying a new-built place or renovating an older place somewhere.
Despite my current lack of success in repurposing my 7-year old PC as a media server, I’m still much in favour up upgrading one’s older PC instead of buying a new one every other year – within limits. Gizmodo has a great Upgrade Guide On The Cheap, which I like very much; some sound advice in there. I’m planning on upgrading both my laptops in the new year with SSD drives, which will improve their speed and lower power usage considerably. Huzzah!
Aug 13 - Lucky Moi
Unlike some people, I don’t give Friday the 13th much thought, as I have a lot more to worry about than unlucky superstitions. Really, who has time to watch for black cats, ladders, and other things that supposedly herald bad luck? I have news for you folks: so far, I’ve had an eagle eye out for GOOD luck, as I have all the bad luck I can handle, thanks. It’s then that you make sure your appreciate the little good things that keep popping up, like the coffee shop keeping the last peanut butter cookie aside for you, since you always come in on a certain day to ask for it. Those are the little things in life that you should love, and bad luck has nothing to do with them at all.
The second of my two replacement adaptors arrived today, along with record temperatures outside, which I find amusing in an annoying way. Most laptop power adaptors run hot, so in the interest of keeping these two replacements alive, I have them cozened up to a large fan to keep them cool 24/7 – my online research indicates that nobody out there makes cool-running adaptors for laptops. Sure, you can buy tons of cooling gear for your desktop PC parts, but nada in the way for laptop power. Hmmm... apart from the sizzle of overheated adaptor, I smell an opportunity here. Anyone want to come up with a business plan with me?
Aug 14 - Undead Browsing
FireFox is the browser I use day to day, due to its stability, huge number of customizable options and continual improvement. I stayed away for a while a few years ago when the program became bloated and buggy, but the newest versions are solid and great to use. Apart from such great extensions like Xmarks, WheelOfTrust and BarTab, you can customize the look of FireFox with themes, like this one - by Thundara!
The movie for tonight was George Romero’s 1990 remake of Night Of The Living Dead, starring Tony Todd and my fave gal Patricia Tallman of Babylon 5 fame. Like a lot of horror movies up to and from that era, the special effects / gore are the real stars, despite the human drama. Indeed, at the end things are really, really preachy about the barbaric nature of humanity in its treatment of zombies... weird, but there you are. Mmmm... brains?
Aug 15 - A walk...
Today was my typical Sunday off: get up ‘late’ after 9am, enjoy a leisurely breakfast, and then hop online to see who’s around for Xbox. Turns out nobody, so I went for a bike ride along the unfinished main entrance to Bear Mountain, which is quiet, scenic, and chock-full of rocks – have a look:
The afternoon was spent playing BF2, which saw some really high scores( thanks to a couple of 5K achievements )and some really, really bad scores. Fun was mostly had, and I rolled into a game of Borderlands with Lucas that saw some decent progress made – apparently the Berserker is not to his taste, but suits me fine. Great game, in that we can keep coming back to it.
One advantage( and one of the few good things )about working so much this week and last is that I’ve been able to enjoy solid air conditioning all day long. Today was a scorcher, closing in on 38C outside, but thankfully with very little humidity – I love BC! Still, when you’re sweltering inside at a few degrees below that, it’s not all that great anyway. Taking off to spend some time in a cool coffee shop is a great way to beat the heat, which I did today – finding a cool pool, shopping mall or library also works quite well.
I’m typing this outside on my balcony, where the patio stones are radiating heat well after 9pm as the late summer sun sets over the forested hills here. A light breeze has picked up to cool the air and it’s just perfect – no bugs to bother me, nothing but the sound of the frogs in the pond below and the occasional little human sounds coming from the area around. Lovely.
