The Word of the Week is....nostalgist.
Aug 16 – Spring Vacation?
Winter’s a-comin’ soon, and with that thoughts of leaving cold Canada for warmer climes. I’m better off than most here in Victoria, where snow is somewhat of a stranger most years( except 2008! )so I can’t complain. I’ve been to Mexico twice, but I’ve never been to a ‘tourist’ resort where the plan is to party hearty for the whole time one is there – no sitting on the beach watching the stick in the sand tell the time. I’ll be keeping an eye on sites like Expedia.ca and FlightCentre.ca to see what packages I can find on the cheap.
What’s your favourite season? Mine’s Spring: full of possibilities, where the dull of Winter is put aside in favour of new growth and fresh beginnings. Summer’s the time to play, Fall’s time to buckle down for the passage towards the cold months of Winter that have to be put up with in order to reach Spring again. Strangely, some folks over at the Battlefield 2: Bad Company Forums say that Winter is their fave season... better camouflage?
Aug 17 – Talking Dimensions and Space At Home
Though I didn’t grow up to be a scientist, I still harbour a fascination with many areas of the scientific world. Rene put me onto the following great video on YouTube, which is all about the Ten Dimensions – there’s not just three anymore:
Those of you who’ve read my blog for a while know that I enjoy talking about efficient use of space in homes, given the places that I’ve lived while in BC have all been rather limited in size. One architect who has perfected the art of maximizing space in innovative ways is Gary Chang, who grew up in Hong Kong where space is always at a premium with 7 million people packed into the city. His space-saving Hong Kong apartment uses foldaway storage and reconfigurable elements to turn one 330sq-ft room into many, all again without compromising the function of any element. Watch the video on his website and you’ll see what I mean – who needs a big house, anyway?
Aug 18 – Wince-worthy War
Sometimes I’ve winced at the way some people use words in a sentence; I’m not an editor, but it still makes a part of my brain hurt to hear the language mangled severely. One of the things that people often misuse in a sentence when writing is “i.e.” – which is short for “that is” not “here are some examples” of things. TheOatmeal.com has a great example of how i.e. should be used, very similar to Bob The Angry Flower’s visual rant on the humble apostrophe – flower up, dudes.
Ouch – I had my butt handed to me in Battlefield: Bad Company 2 tonight. The game isn’t designed for going solo, as it’s squad-based so that you have your buddies there to back you up / cover you / revive you / resupply you during combat. But, since I’m too cheap to splurge on purchasing a bunch of the upgrade packs’ to get myself more weapons in a flash, I’ve been working my way through each of the kits to try and get gear to help me in the game. Guess what? A LOT of the other guys already have MOST of that gear and it really helps: I was on the receiving end of a LOT of fire tonight as I slogged my way through each session. By the end I was really grumpy; in some games I had multiple ‘Nemesis’ players on the other team, whose skill combined with gear meant I was meat on the table for many a match. Grrr.
Aug 19 – Star Wars and Nostalgia
Last week, the LA Times ran an excellent piece interviewing Gary Kurtz, who was the producer on two of the original Star Wars films and Jim Henson’s The Dark Crystal. In the interview, Kurtz talks in detail about how he parted from George Lucas over the direction that the third Star Wars film was to take. I found it interesting to read, as Kurtz makes some great points about commercialism and filmmaking in general. Definitely worth the read IMHO.
On occasion, a song will stick in your head and you can’t get it out. More commonly, you start the day off with a song in your head – see if you can’t remember the last one that got stuck there! This week I’ve have the theme song from “Tales of the Green Forest” in my head from my childhood, as it aired on TV Ontario back in the eighties. A little searching found a few videos and little else, as this Green Forest nostalgist writes – apparently The Green Forest is lost between the original broadcast and DVD, never to see the light of day. Weird.
Aug 20 – Can’t Budget Friendship
Yes, it’s hard sometimes working for a living... but I’ve seen a lot of alternative lifestyle representatives walk through the branch doors over the years, and so far I like earning a wage by comparison. Work to live, don’t live to work though – keeping a work / life balance as you go along means you have things to do outside of the office / workplace that keep you sane. I see a lot of people’s paystubs and I have to say it’s not what you earn but how you spend it – it’s shocking how many people keep throwing money at a problem instead of just thinking about alternative ways to solve things, like budgeting. Maybe budgeting should be taught as early as high school?
Tonight I talked to two of my favourite people, both of them out-of-the-blue calls, which are usually the best kind. First was Lucas, who told me all about his Kilt experience in the company of a ravishing redhead, who are my version of Kryptonite you could say. Makes me want to be able to hop a flight back to Niagara once a month or so just to see what goes on at the Kilt these days. Later on, Rene called and we caught up on things; it’s been some months since we last managed to connect. I was thrilled to hear that he’s gone through a ‘sea change’ for the better recently, which is less than he truly deserves given the rotten luck he’s had this year. All in all it was a great night to catch up with friends, which I wish would happen more often... maybe when I’m working less and have more interesting things to report about my own life?
Aug 21 – Kickass Waiters
I’ve talked about doing podcasts recently, and the idea is still buzzing around in my head. I have looked at some of the ways that people are expressing themselves on the web nowadays: blogs, podcasts, journals and more... one of the more interesting ways is on a YouTube channel of your very own, like WheezyWaiter. Who has a beard and reminds me of Kevin Spacey, sort of, and is fairly funny – who said original material is just for budding comics? Still, I’m not sure I’d be that interesting on camera, though I’m told I’m not likely to crack the lens when I crack a smile... just when I crack a joke, people may scream a little bit. Or poop themselves. Or something. Have a look at Justin.Tv where people have channels galore!
After a rather busy day where everything I wanted to complete at work kept getting interrupted, I was ready to kick some ass. Which is perfect, as I watched Kick-Ass via a Zune rental on Xbox Live. It was my first Zune rental, and took over an hour to download on my lite-version internet -8.6 gigs of HD goodness doesn’t move quickly. I liked the movie, as it had original moments and really moved the plot along without any slow spots. I agree that HitGirl stole the show, though I wondered at the morality of a ‘tween killer whose body-count numbered in the dozens yet that aspect of the ‘hero’ never gets a word of airtime in the movie. The Wolverine reference was also fun with the x-rays – but where’s the claws?
Aug 22 – Training for Rentals
Bleh – work again was true to form, with the day averaging one person every ten minutes all day long. Meaning I got nothing done towards catching up on my manager duties, which are again delayed towards another day... backed up again, with more ‘vital’ tasks piling up. I’ve been training two new employees all this week, which has actually been quite pleasant as they’re both extremely quick learners. I enjoy training( my parent’s teaching background coming to the fore, perhaps? )and it’s my aim to have them both ready for the front lines in less than three weeks time. I’ve been told I’m the premier trainer on the Island and so far all the people I’ve trained have remained both with the company and solid employees all, so maybe there’s something to that.
Disappointingly, I was unable to watch Kick-Ass again to pick out any hidden references or stop-motion a few scenes, as the Zune rental expires 24 hours after watching( or 14 days after download without watching ). Seems like a rip to me, though it’s the same as returning a DVD to the rental shop. If it weren’t for the download time, I might use the service again, but for now I’ll consider other services like Zip.ca for DVD rentals or a streaming service like NetFlix, which is coming to Canada Fall 2010.
Next week: something more interesting. Or at least different. Mayhaps.
