The word of the week is execrable.
June 20 – VR Phones?
My VR headset arrived today!
Before you think I'm crazy, this isn't 'true' VR*
virtual-reality costing thousands, but rather a headset designed to hold a
smart phone in front of your eyes, like so:
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| This model even came with a remote! |
By using a smart phone, one can get around( to some degree )the need for some rather
expensive hardware to experience VR. Smart phones these days are powerful
enough to provide a decent viewing experience and combined with the motion
sensors they already possess, it's a relatively easy thing to do. And at a mere
$25 for the headset( purchased after much research and good reviews ) it
was time for me to get one.
Unfortunately, at the moment there's not a whole
lot of good VR apps out there, and the ones that do exist don't always play
nicely with different models of phones: there's no set 'standard' for this kind
of VR yet, only approximations designed to work with as many models of phones
as possible.
It's a distraction for me at this point, but I'm
hoping that it will eventually turn into a tool I can use for my business.
Being able to model parts in 3-D might come in handy, along with other tasks
and I'm certainly open to discovering new things that I can do with this gear.
So far, the experiment seemed to be working decently well: everything seems to
run smoothly in terms of frame rate and that's key.
Hopefully the usefulness will come sooner rather
than later.
June 21 – Nose
Smoke?
Smoke really bothers me, especially when I can't
escape it.
Aside from the ever present stench in my
building's hallway from my next-door neighbor, I run into cigarette smoke every
single time I'm out walking in the city.
Every
time.
It's a migraine
trigger for me, unfortunately and so just as I do in my building's hallway,
I've developed the habit of watching people for lit cigarettes and holding my
breath as I pass them by. If at all possible, I go out of my way to avoid the
clouds they exude, slowing down to let the things dissipate or even crossing
the street if they're particularly voluminous in their noxious exhalations.
I won't get into the finer points of my personal
rights versus theirs here; it's a free country and if they want to kill
themselves slowly then that's their right. I just prefer that they don't share
that mentality with me and others by exhaling.
You might ask: what if I could just filter out the smoke?
I've considered wearing masks that would do just
that, but aside from looking ridiculous, they're not all that effective to wear
long-term. They restrict breathing significantly by covering the nose and mouth
and on top of that, most masks are expensive and need replacing regularly.
Then I discovered this product, which I'm
considering getting:
The plugs are discrete, relatively inexpensive
and I'd only have to wear them when I'm out walking around in relatively
crowded areas, where people are puffing out fumes often enough to make it
worthwhile. Nobody would know that I was wearing them and the best part is that
I can continue to breathe normally through both my mouth and nose, simply
closing my mouth to breathe through the filters whenever I pass through
somebody's carelessly floating cloud of carcinogens.
Something to think about.
June 22 – Was I pwned?
Have you been hacked?
It's a good question to ask yourself every few
months. With all the online accounts that people have nowadays, it's hard to
know if you've been affected by one of the growing number of privacy breaches
that keep happening.
A great resource( and free! )to have
bookmarked is Haveibeenpwned.com, which is a reliable website dedicated to
letting people know if there privacy has been breached and presenting the info
in a simple, easy-to-use format.
Basically, you just enter your e-mail and see if
it's associated with reported breaches: if you use that account anywhere that
has been compromised, the site will tell you.
I was shocked to learn that two rather ancient
websites that I frequented almost 10 years ago had been breached, when
associated with one of my two main long-term e-mail addresses. Fortunately, the
information on those sites was rather outdated and while I'm not happy that
someone out there knows my birthdate, I don't think they're going to be able to
do much with it, especially if it's bundled with millions of other much juicier
datasets that people left hanging around. I tend not to put more than the bare
minimum of information into any sites that I won't be using on a regular basis,
which helps keep my private info private.
I think that's a good policy, especially given
the prevalence and sophistication of hackers these days.
June 23 – Tanks for the memories!
Nostalgia comes in many forms, and today a little
bit of mine came in the mail.
One of the best memories of my childhood is
getting a HISS tank for my 10th birthday. It was an 'enemy' vehicle, belonging
to the evil Cobra organization that opposed G.I. Joe and it was as solid a toy
as I've ever had the pleasure of playing with: I practically wore mine out,
despite it being a solid chunk of heavy plastic.
Unfortunately, that was the reason that I ended
up selling it off about 10 years ago as part of paring things down before my
move to BC in 2007. Ever since then, I've regretted giving away that particular
piece of my childhood, as I discovered to my chagrin that the darn things are
fairly expensive on eBay if they're in good shape.
As luck would have it, after a few years of
looking I managed to acquire one recently for the kingly sum of $25 CAN, which was a great find! As you can see, it's in great shape, with even the easily-scratched cockpit plastic looking like new:
Key to note is that the gun barrels are elevated:
almost all the HISS tanks still out there lack this ability, as the tiny little
tabs underneath wear out in no time with regular play. To find a HISS tank in
such great shape like this is a real
coup and my inner child is feeling most satisfied with holding it in my hands
again.
It's like my 10th birthday all over again, though
admittedly without any 32-year-old cake.
June 24 – Don't Sleep Outside
Waking up early sucks; being woken at 4 AM sucks
even more.
I wasn't feeling great this evening and wanted to
go to bed early, but I couldn't follow sleep until around midnight. Which is
fine, as long as I got sleep in… and this being the weekend, that's exactly
what I had in mind for tomorrow.
However, I was awoken at 4am by someone who
decided to park on our street while leaving their car running... whose muffler
had either fallen off or had more holes in it than a politician’s promise. The metal-drums-booming
racket must've woken the entire local neighborhood and I heard the lady
upstairs get up at the same time as I did.
Feeling rather annoyed and still being assaulted
by the pulsing beat of the idiot’s vehicle, I slipped on some clothes and
headed outside with the flashlight, with the vague half-asleep idea of appearing
pissed off enough to make said idiot move on.
Just as I got outside, they did just that. Grrrr.
I headed around the corner of the rear parking
lot to see if I can catch a glimpse of their retreating taillights and that's
when I got a bit of a surprise:
There was someone slumped over on the grass by
the road.
After an initial second's shock, I noticed that
it was a young man. He was seated cross-legged on the grass somewhat neatly,
wearing just a T-shirt in the cool air and with a knapsack beside him. A pair
of white headphones were connected to a music player and I could clearly hear
the music blasting into his ears from 10 feet away.
He was also pitched face forward onto the grass,
which looked really uncomfortable unless he was some sort of yoga devotee. From
what I can tell, he had sat down, turned on his music and then passed out face
first into the grass: classic faceplant.
I decided against trying to wake him, as I could
see he was breathing. Heading back inside without catching a glimpse of the
vehicle that woken me, I dialed up the police and let them know about the
likely-drunk young guy outside doing silent yoga in the cold. I stayed awake
for almost another hour until I heard voices outside accompanied by bright
lights and knew that the cops had him taken care of, so I managed to fall
asleep at last.
The next morning I checked in with the police for
an update on Mr. Yoga. It was exactly as I thought: the guy had had too much to
drink, picked a 'safe' spot to pass out and did exactly that. Which wasn't all
that smart, as anyone could have come by to cause him grief and spending four
or five hours outside in the 11C weather probably wouldn't have done him much
good on top of that.
So I had done the right thing. Amusingly, when I
walked out there on Saturday, I spotted $6.00 in toonies nestled in the grass
exactly where he had sat. Thus in a small way, my kindness was repaid... and
that brought a smile to my face.
Still didn’t get me my lost sleep back – may karma
find that Muffler Idiot soon!
June 25 – Space Empires!
It was Game Day today!
On the menu: a 4-player game of Eclipse, the best( in my opinion )space-empire boardgame out there right now. Myself,
my lady, my friend Chris and his pal Greg all got together around 4 PM to have
a go at playing a full game of Eclipse. With 9 'rounds' to go through, none of
us had any idea if that would happen.
As it turns out, it was a ton of fun finding out!
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| What might still be revealed under the next hex? |
As you can see from the picture above, the game
board is set up using a random selection of hex tiles, each representing one
'sector' of space that players can control. Each player works out from their
starting hex, gaining influence over nearby sectors and deciding the path of
their empire's development. Part of the beauty of the game is that victory can
be attained through various different strategies and not just a rush to see who
can build the most powerful armies.
As you can see from this late-game shot, there's
not a lot to each of the player’s territories and none of us had more than a
half-dozen ships in our 'fleets' by the time the final round of the game arrived:
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| I'm the red player, my lady is green... |
As it turned out, my lady and Chris tied for
victory( in both Victory Points and even the Economic Supply areas )and
had to duke it out in a furious space battle! Unfortunately, my lady lost to
Chris' tech-heavy fleet... But it was fun to watch!
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| Showdown in space! |
The best part was that we finished the game in
around four hours, which exactly
matched my prediction of games lasting about one hour per player involved. So
for the next game that we have, we'll
know how long to budget for to allow us to finish playing... and since we are
all now rather familiar with the game mechanics, it should be even more
exciting than today's epic game!
June 26 – That Sinking Feeling
Back to the pond today, and the weather was
beautiful!
My lady and I breakfasted at the Beacon, where I
was pleasantly surprised by this bounteous meal( I think their cooks are really
shaping up well lately ):
I know, I know. I took a picture of my breakfast,
but I had a was quite honestly surprised not only by how it looked but how good
it was, so I figured it was worth sharing. Plus, dining on their spacious patio
was nigh perfect under an awning in the morning breezes from the ocean. I
appreciate the wonder of living where I do: fresh air, sunshine and bevvy of
beautiful things to appreciate, all at hand…
Down at the boat pond by the sea, there were a
fair number of model boaters out. My lady and I set up shop under the gentle
boughs of a willow that overhangs the pond... and I could get the boat to power
up. Checking the battery, I saw that I had all the connections correct and so I
switched to the much smaller backup that I had used with my M41A nerf rifle the month before: it
worked like a charm.
So while my lady happily drove our Haulin’ Trawler around the pond, I
checked in with some of the other boaters to diagnose the battery. Quite
quickly it was determined that the cell was completely dead, and the cause was entirely my fault: I had let it
drop below critical charge levels and apparently LiPo( Lithium Polymer )batteries
can't recover from that. So, $80.00 lesson learned... *sigh*
I do love my tech, but sometimes tech doesn’t return
the feelings back…
But you learn your lessons and move on. After
voting was done around noon, we hung out with a half-dozen of the modelers down
at a very nice Moka House coffee
shop at Fisherman's Wharf, talking shop and generally enjoying ourselves. They
are a relaxed and fun bunch, very knowledgeable in their hobby, so my lady and
I enjoyed ourselves quite a bit in their company. We were even joined by my
friend Murray, who lives nearby and happened to run into us by pure
coincidence.
My lady and I spent a few more hours out and
about, exploring the downtown area on foot. We wandered into Cavity Curiousity Shop on Yates, where
been before and was again impressed by the quality of the merchandise that proprietor Andy has curated. He has excellent taste: there's a fine selection
of old-school science fiction and fantasy books mixed in with many other
treasures of every imaginable media, though admittedly I don't have a use for
most of them aside from pure nostalgia.
Incredibly, he also had not one but TWO working
laserdisc players( both of them solid single-side-players )tucked away
under a counter! I briefly spoke to him about perhaps getting a package deal
for one with some laserdiscs he had in storage, for me to see in the near
future - nice! Sometimes, it pays to ask...
Back home for the evening, I was feeling a little
tired and didn't do much save prep the blog. I think I'm going to have to force
myself to exercise a minimum of every other day on the stationary bike just to
keep my energy levels up, as it seems I can't go more than three days without
feeling tired of late.
More exercise is never bad for anyone, even in
moderation.
I don't know what's
with my oddly-low energy levels of late, but I'm glad to know that it's not
anything do with anxiety, as that's been a real pain in the ass to overcome and
keep on top of. There's lots to do this summer and I don't plan on spending
much of it flaked out with flagging energy levels - at a bare minimum I have to
get the next draft of my first book done, so have at it, Muse!
