Advice, Awesome and( Fresh )Air

The word of the week is awesome, which tends to be underrated these days.

May 2 - Fresh Air Beats Cold Symptoms

Thanks to medications, rest and the usual plenty-of-fluids, I'm feeling much better this week having rid myself of the cold that decided to visit me unasked. I'm still tired, but no more so than usual for me - I'm hoping that the fresh spring air and warmer temperatures will tempt me into taking a few bike rides soon enough. I'm walking home from work several nights a week, which adds up to about 12km of walking, some of it uphill, so that exercise is excellent; I'm not out of breath at all even when I push myself moderately, which is a good sign. Soon enough I'll be able to run along a beach without fear of untoward jiggling in odd places and not blinding passerby with my pale, hirsute countenance. Nice!

May 3 – The Bacon Song!

Uh oh... I noticed last week that it's been some time since I mentioned bacon in this blog – sacrilegious in some ways, some might say. Fortunately, one of the many talented folks on YouTube recently came up with this gem of a tune to fill one's soulful sympathetic sizzling bacon needs nicely:

May 4 - Happy Star Wars Day!

May The Fourth be with you today ... that works on many levels, including the lowest( and my favourite ): puns! It was announced today that the complete Star Wars saga will be available in Fall 2011 on Blu-Ray, with 40 hours of extra features including all the ones from previous DVD releases. As I don't have any of the films on DVD( an odd oversight for me, I know )this is good news; I'll probably pick the Complete Saga up in the new year once prices fall a little. Of course I'll need to have picked up a Blu-Ray player of some kind by then... giving in to the inevitable and with a nod to the fact that the Next Big Thing will be along soon to make Blu-Ray obsolete as soon as I plunk down the cash for a player – it's the way of things.

May 5 - Xbox Slim Super Special Deal!

For over three years now, I've owned an Xbox360 Elite which has seen somewhat infrequent use. For the most part, it's been used to game online with friends; it's a rare time that I plunk down for more than a few minutes to play games solo – I don't know why, but I'd rather play solo games on the PC; maybe it's a learned habit to use a keyboard and mouse( which may be more relaxing than clutching a controller ). Today though, I traded in the refurbished 360 Elite for a new 360 Slim... for a total of $35 out of pocket; I love specials! I'll be transferring the old 250 gig hard drive( almost full )to the new console as soon as the new-style case arrives in the mail. A little technical tinkering and it should be set up just like the old console, but with a lot less noise and a lot more reliability. Plus a new warranty = win. You can still get in on the special until May 12th at EB Games, if you're interested.

May 6 - E-ink on cloth? Paper computers?

Shades of Blade Runner , Batman! Two technological breakthroughs in one week - I can hardly contain myself! After a decade of development, it's now possible to make a display flexible enough to print on cloth - have a look at the video in the link and imagine what this is going to do for the t-shirt industry! Second Major Breakthrough? Superthin flexible displays... not just to display data, but to interact with it. Imagine: paper-thin smartphones that you can roll up like the unwanted flyers you find on your windshield. Only more expensive and not quite at the stage where the tech is fully realized. But the staggering potential is there; I just love that I could drop the thing or sit on it and not EVER worry about shattering the screen!

May 7 - Life Advice, Free!

Advice is always good when it's free, but one should always take it with a grain of salt( or three ). Apart from that rhyming sentence, some very good advice for Life In General has been compiled by LifeHacker in their Top Ten Solutions To Real Life's Most Annoying Problems. It has some great links in there for many of the common problems that we all face; I myself have found the section on burnout to be rather informative and helpful - for those days when the 1000 Awesome Things site( see below! )doesn't help, that is. Go have a browse through; what can it hurt? It may even help!

May 8 - Awesome x1000

Today was definitely a day of rest, with online games interspersed with some time at the Bean( soon not to be called that )next door and a little gratuitous nap time thrown in for good measure; the usual fare. What's not usual is a site called 1000 Awesome Things.com, which collects and posts all of the things in life that people find awesome! From underwear fresh from the dryer to that fresh smell after it rains, people have flocked in the millions to this simple blog site to remind all of us that life is Full Of Awesome. Which really, you shouldn't need reminding of, but it's nice to have a list of some things that you may not have experienced in a while - I like #255 myself, as I'm sometimes That Guy at work. Unhealthy? Yes. Tasty? Hell Yes! Same thing next week? Maybe.

It seems I have a third follower now in as many weeks, though I'm not sure what language they speak - be welcome all the same, ulfacannademilovato!

A reminder: this weekly blog goes back to Nov. 1st 2007! If you want to see previous entries, they're grouped by date on the left-hand side of the blog. Browse a little; I make an effort every week to put Interesting Things in there for you!