Shazam, Superheroes and Simultenaity

Well, this is what you get when you combine a day off with being too tired to do more than sit on the couch... a link-heavy blog. Try not to let the monitor tilt forward from the weight...

March 16 - Man Caves?

As some of you know, I have a penchant for the apocalyptic... which is odd, as I have NO desire to try to survive post-holocaust mutant attacks with only roasted rat and crunchy cockroaches for food. Still, there are many ways to destroy the world with science( and even random asteroids )so you never know if something will just creep up on us all unawares...

These days, the phrase 'rec room' seems to have died off, to be replaced with things like 'home theater' or 'family room' or even the ubiquitous 'den' ... any of those describe a place where people gather to relax, to entertain themselves and to socialize.

So where does a Man Cave fit into the above categories? I have to admit, I'd rather tell people we'll be watching a movie in a home theater than a man cave... sounds like a place where one goes to hide from the world. Still, there are TV shows about the subject, and there's debate on which term to use to describe such a place( Man Cave or Manctuary ). Since the term Man Cave has made it into the Urban Dictionary, I guess it will be with us for a while... though hopefully not as long as wassup has been.

Then we have the ultimate Man Cave... well, at least if you're feeling somewhat insecure.

March 17 - Green Day! No, wait a sec...

Happy St. Patrick's Day to y'all... in case you thought you knew all about the holiday, this site has some facts about today's celebrations that perhaps you didn't know. There are a few more by this guy who is odd in his own unique way. A more official site is here, which may be more towards the mainstream taste.... if you're feeling green - I wonder if Oscar The Grouch is Irish?

I guess I have a soft spot for St. Paddy's Day, as my favourite colour is green. Though I don't have as much of a fondness for Oscar The Grouch, despite this excellent pic that my friend Mike made of me as Oscar a little while back. Maybe because I am less of a grouch than I was back then? Hmmm.

Last year, I posted about how McDonald's was bringing back the Shamrock Shake in 2008 "for a limited time" only. Have a look a little further down that page... the ingredients may make your eyes pop and your heart stutter in fear - yikes! Sadly, or perhaps not so sadly, McDonald's did not offer the Shamrock Shake to the public this year... so no memories of minty-green goodness were formed.

I guess that's what all the green beer is supposed to substitute for. Probably better, in the long run... especially in this, the age of the iPhone, where people have created programs like the Green Beer Finder to help thirsty iPhone owners out on St. Paddy's day. My, how the times are a-changin' ... though it's REALLY COOL that iPhone users now have Shazam, an app that can identify ANY song you hear playing simply by holding the iPhone up to the music! Incredible!!!!

March 18 - Super Funny

Almost everyone, at one time or another, has dreamed about having superpowers. This thread here has people talking about what superpowers they would have, if they could have them. Of course, most superhero origins are ones beyond the soon-to-be-hero's control... I can't think of a superhero in any media that chose his/her superpowers; radioactive spiders don't take direction very well, y'know.

And, since today is mid-week hump day, and I can't let a blog entry go baconless, I present... bacon porn! It's family-safe, surprisingly.

Also humping nicely along is Arrested Development... well, the series is. Put it a different way: I'm really enjoying it so far, and that's only the first season... dry, witty humour tossed around zany dysfunctional family units... love it! I'm watching it on my PS2( thanks Rene! )which is working surprisingly well with a DVD remote and looks great on the big screen... sure beats swapping DVD's in and out all the time. Too bad DVD changers were always too expensive... which I guess really isn't too bad after all, as it's lead to media being stored on hard drives and not easily-scratched or lost discs... which have to be swapped out all the time to watch things. The Rise of the PVR, friends... or TiVO in the US: trend, or Evil Plan? You decide.

March 19 - Two Calls at once!

In the midst of work's grinding fatigue, some good news today, somewhat indirectly: Crazy Lady's hubby came in today to send some funds back home... where he apparently is going too! Not that I disliked him, really, but it gives me hope that his wacko wife will follow shortly and so leave my sphere of interaction forever. One can cope... I still have flashbacks of her head starting to spin around, moments away from emitting streams of vomit while voices chanted unholy dirges in the darkening lobby... oh wait, that was from The Exorcist. You get the point.

Some more good timing: as I finished work today, later than I'd have liked( as usual )my just-now turned-back-on cell rang: it was Josh! I'd not managed to talk to him for some time, so I was delighted... except that I was trying to leave and that meant I needed to talk to my security company. So I asked him to call me back in 10 mins and hung up... only to have my phone ring AGAIN before I could dial - would you believe it was BRIAN? Imagine what the odds are that two good friends of mine BOTH decide to call me with ten seconds of each other, after months of no contact?

So that was a nice evening... I managed to talk to both Brian and Josh in detail, which was great given the time difference. Brian and I chatted on Skype, which ran rather well on my laptop... until the router choked - see the entry for the 22nd below on that. All in all, a great end to a crappy day.

March 20 - Watching the weather

Today was the first day of spring, and it was a doozy. Sun, rain, wind... all within an hour's period. I've heard a few of the long-time residents here say "If you don't like the weather in Victoria, wait 30 mins." It's true: living on an island, large as it is, does make for changeable weather. Plus, having the massive heatsinks of the Olympic Mountains to the south keeps things cool sometimes, if the wind is from that direction... brrr! Some people disagree with this assessment however; this one in particular, who like me lived in the Great Lakes region for a long spell before moving to Victoria.

Also, Watchmen opened 2 weeks ago, and apparently hasn't done as well as everyone had expected. Perhaps they should have released this alternate trailer... which has footage from Wall-E set to the music from Watchmen. It clicks rather well, actually... a dark, edgy Wall-E? Come on, you wanna watch it...

March 21 - On Gaming

I was thinking recently that I don't have anyone to game with out here, and that it's been years since I last gamed with a group. My last gaming group kind of fizzled out, for various reasons, and I've missed it - I grew up playing things like DnD, Heroes Unlimited and TMNT. I can see that part of the reason I liked gaming was being able to tell a story as much as participate in one... the interactivity between the storyteller and the audience was very personal and fulfilling, at times. Other times, it was intensely frustrating and quite often boring... but then, life is like that too, right?

There's quite a few things that've been written about gaming, that are out there in the wilds of the 'net. Some are funny, and creative. Others aren't.

Then again, when things get a little TOO nerdy, this happens.

March 22 - On Routers

I went out and purchased a new router today, as I've HAD it with my Belkin N router. Over the past year that I've owned it, it's become increasingly flakier: for no reason, it will lose connection to the 'net and I'll have to reset it. This is VERY annoying when gaming, downloading, surfing... anything, really. So after the router did it to me several times a day for the last week, and didn't respond to ANY of the tech tips I dredged up from various support forums, I packed it in - apparently I'm not the only one who's had issues with this model. Good riddance; I now have a new, expensive doorstop.

The replacement? Not this one by Dlink - while I'd love to splurge on it, I won't use a lot of what it is capable of. Instead, my pre-purchase research led me to the Dlink DIR-655 - not much of a name, but it's a solid router with a lot of good reviews. After a fairly simply setup, getting the other PC's hooked in and the other routers configured was less painful then I had thought, and the results speak for themselves - holy speed increase! If I was a twitch gamer I'd be dancing for joy, for my ping times dropped down into the teens, legitimizing my claim( if I wanted it )as an LPB. Which, back in the early days of cable modems, was around 50ms... snail-slow these days.


TTFN...

Stories, Swedes and Snow

Well, l'm not sure what to make of Brian hijacking my blog... my thoughts are akin to watching a chihuahua try to chew my leg off: good luck, little nipper. Though it'd be cute to watch him try, with those beady little eyes and that yappy noise he makes. Oh, the chihuahua, not Brian. Really.

Dec 8 - Butchart and Goldstream

Off today, but busy nonetheless; left in the late AM to travel north to Goldstream park. The stench of dead salmon was still strong despite the cool air; you could smell it from the road just as the trees began to close in from the park proper. But I was not there to see the dead dish, no - I was there to see eagles. Not just ANY eagles either: bald eagles. Yes, you heard correctly... this is the time of year when the bald eagles flock to cleanup duty, when the streams disgorge their cargo of dead fish into the estuaries and the eagles feast.

We ended up at the far end of Goldstream park, which was mercifully free of crowds, being a weekday and after the Salmon Run died off weeks ago... literally. The weather was great, illuminating the trees and their mossy coverings. We stood outside the Nature Lodge and watched at least a dozen bald eagles, both the parents and the young, in trees across the expanse of the 'Quiet Zone' which is an area where humans are forbidden to trespass or make noise - this has brought larger numbers of eagles back every year for years since its institution at this end of the park. Once I knew what to look for, the bald eagles were easy to spot( hi Brian! )as their heads looked like white golf balls against the green trees. Really - they looked just like that. Only, well, eagle-ish. Having a pair of good binoculars helped bring things close, and they were amazing to watch - there are live cameras accessible through this site here, which has cams for other wildlife parks in the area too.

On to lunch at the Waddling Dog, a bar with a great name, good food and mediocre service. Apparently, the bar is named after a mascot dachshund, whose bigger-than-life-sized image stands ready by the far entrance. They're up to John the 6th apparently, who spends most of his time sleeping under the counter by the main entrance - we didn't see him, as we arrived around 2pm and didn't want to bother the sodden crowd gathered around the sports scores at the main bar. The food was good, in decent portions, but the whole time we were given the feeling that the waitress would rather be anywhere else... she was easily the most inattentive and least personable waitress we've had in years. Not rude... just indifferent in large doses. Ah well... that's what tips are for, or in this case, lacking thereof.

Finally, we got to Butchart Gardens, arriving in time for me to actually get some pictures in daylight this time. Now that the winter is here, the flowers are in short supply, but there is still a lot of green everywhere; the lawns are full and lush despite the low temperatures, which surprised me. We took a walk through once while the daylight was waning, then set out again more slowly to capture the Christmas lights in all their glory - they go all-out here, with tens of thousands of lights strung all throughout the Gardens. They had the Twelve Days of Christmas done to the nines at various points in the park, like the Five Golden Rings here and here, seen after dark. You can see some other folk's pictures here, along with the IEOA Lighted Truck Parade that took place last week, which I missed due to work - again. Ah well... they have it every year, so I'll see it eventually.

Dec 9 - Frankly G33k Decorating

I spent a good part of the day moving my Blue Frankenstein from one side of my apartment to the other, which involved a lot of wire untangling and general cursing. It really made the place look bigger and less cluttered though, now that it is ensconced next to my couch and no longer a hulking, glowing focal point for the room. Quieter too, with fan noise being muffled by proximity to the fabric and not stuck out in the open to reflect off surfaces, like hardwood floors. A technical challenge though, to get the HDMI signal across the room to the TV, which a long cable solved... sort of. Once I had everything hooked up and turned it on, the video flickered, went red, and then went to static. A problem...

Which is the kind of thing I enjoy solving. After some head-scratching and cursing, I surmised that the signal being output by my video card simply wasn't strong enough to wend its way through twenty-five feet of cable and arrive all fresh and happy at the TV... hence the odd colour-then-static failure. So I grabbed a few extra cables and ran the signal through a handy HDMI splitter I'd purchased for other reasons... lo and behold: a perfectly strong boosted signal. Stick THAT in your tech support, ATI! I am bitter about ATI's total inability to solve my antiquated All-In-Wonder 9800 Pro video card issues, despite several years of emails... but since Microsoft can't solve my Xbox360 HDMI issues either, I have to make do with what I come up with.

Dec 10 - Swedish Shelves

After moving things around yesterday, I got down to the business of bookshelf-building today, as the final shelf has sat in a box in my bedroom for almost 11 months now awaiting space to be cleared. It took but an hour to put things together and set it up under my TV next to the fireplace, and I must say the room has a completed look to it now that the pile of PC cables and gear never gave it. Perhaps this is what things are moving towards: hiding the home computer out of sight so that only the interface, like wireless keyboards and a TV display, are visible. Aside from the PC modder community, I think this is how things will be for most folk, as nobody likes to see this taking up space in their living room or den. What with having a laptop now, the old PC has taken a back seat, mainly existing to heat my place in the winter while processing the latest BOINC files, as well as gather my email and serve media to the TV... not a bad life, as retired computers go; things could be much worse. Especially since in the ten years since this article on computer recycling was published, not much has changed - the only province in Canada to charge an environmental levy on electronic purchases is B.C. - how ironic! I love the fact that you can go to this RCBC website and look up available recycling methods for almost any product... lack of knowledge often results in things being landfilled that could otherwise be recycled.

On a completely unrelated note, the Swedish Chef has been on my mind of late. Nothing got me laughing faster while watching TV than an episode of The Muppets with the Chef on it. The way things always progressed from simple cooking to bizarre disaster was always creative and uproariously funny as well as being a new twist every time, guest stars aside. As befits a scion of St. Catharines, one of my favourite clips is the Chef showing us how to make a donut.

There is even a Swedish Chef Translator, which apparently has been around in one form or another for over a decade... who knew? Go ahead, use the Borkifier and see what happens!

Then there is the related Theory of Swedish Meatballs...

Dec 11 - Short Stories

Does anyone remember "The Storyteller" ? It was a great series designed to present fairy tales to modern audiences, created by who else but Jim Henson. It starred John Hurt, and was a great show to curl up in front of the fire with, so to speak. Other shows along the same lines were Amazing Stories, The Twilight Zone and the live-action show Dinosaurs, again by Brian Henson.

My DVD copy of the Robotech Protoculture Collection arrived from Amazon.ca today, a used copy that was mailed to me all the way from England. Considering that a new copy is currently running around $150.00 CAN plus shipping, I got quite a sweet deal. Now I can erase all 80 or so episodes I recorded on my DVR last spring, which will clear a LOT of space, I tell you. Though since I don't use it to record much TV of late, the extra space isn't really necessary... again with the irony.

Dec 12 - Silly people, locks are for hicks!

I thought today would start out horribly, as I had no sooner arrived at work and locked the door behind me than Crazy Lady showed up wanting in. A too-long mime session later, she got the point that no, we were NOT open, that she could come back at 11am, and that the hours posted on the door DID actually apply to her as well as everyone else. Amazingly, she went away and only came back once to rattle the door at 10:50 am, ever so briefly, before coming back at 11:10 to act totally normal when dealing with me... not even a peep of derision for not opening the store immediately when she arrived. Perhaps she was discovering that Canada did not run to her schedule of needs, and that she might actually need to consult a bus schedule or read posted business hours once in a while?

Nah. She's crazy. That's all I have to say about today, as the rest was pretty normal.

Dec 13 - Snow. Yes, it is exciting. For some.

Late in the evening, well after I arrived home, it began to snow. Now, this is no big thing back in Niagara, but this is the first snow of the year for Victoria. For the last week, talk on the radio, among customers in the lobby, passers-by and total strangers can all be summed up with the question: "When do you think it will start snowing?" - again, it felt odd to me, but people here get excited. Not to mention silly, for a few simple cm of gently falling powder makes people cower inside their homes.

Which are not all that warm, with single-glazed windows and an almost total lack of insulation. Again I am astounded at the difference my insulation efforts have made to my apartment, as I have yet to turn on the heat despite the mercury dropping to a few notches below zero. Comfy inside? You betcha!

Here's a poem I wrote to keep up the spirits of one of my co-workers, as the heat failed in their branch today and they were wrapped up like an Eskimo in a meat locker:

Cold days should be warm, filled with happy thought,
Of hearth-warmth and the smiles it has brought.

Kettle's whistle brings cocoa in hand-warming mugs,
Curled up by the fire, stocking feet tucked in snug.

Snow flutters outside, silent piles of white,
As friends share stories on cold winter's night.

For the critical among my readers, I invite you to see this link on the world's greatest poet. The choice may surprise you. Or not. I know this poor guy would love to have been considered for the title above.

Dec 14 - Rocks Fall... no, not asteroids!

Well, the roads are covered in snow finally, but the stoic acceptance that is so Canadian meant most people simply piled on a few more layers and sauntered out into the weather. I was amused to see how some of my neighbours cleared snow from their yard: she with a shovel, he with... a garden hoe. Hoe, Hoe, Hoe, as the holiday Santas say.

Work was very quiet, and nobody bothered to come by in the last hours after the sun went down and things really started to chill. Though again some folks had different opinions on what 'cold' meant: the girl from Alberta, wearing only a blazer jacket, was used to -40C temps, and the guy from Saudi Arabia went on about how nice it was out compared to the sunstroke-inducing temps of his native country.

I was reading through an extremely funny online comic take on the Lord of The Rings saga, which looks at things as though the whole story was being played as an adventure by a group of gamers. Feel free to skip it if you've never played an RPG before, as you won't get most of the jokes. It's funny, trust me.

Erm, back to the point: one phrase mentioned in one of the comics is 'Rocks Fall, Everyone Dies.' Now, this is a phrase that any old-school RPG gamer has heard at one time or another... but nobody seems to be able to put an origin to. Along of the lines of such phrases as 'Cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey', the Rocks phrase seems to have sprung into being at the beginning of RPG lore. Funny as well too, as it is basically a cop-out, where the person running the game is tired of his player's whining and simply kills them off by saying the phrase. The look of shock on the players faces is usually worth it, but the whining almost never stops after that point. Speaking of which, did I have a point here somewhere...? Ah yes: obscure origins of phrases are endlessly fascinating. Well, to some, they are... and thanks to the 'net, there is now the Slang Dictionary - go read it before I break your crayons. Or something.

I was dead tired after work today, so much so that I kept falling asleep while typing up the blog after a late dinner. Perhaps the week just caught up to me, or I was just feeling warm and cozy curled up with the laptop tossing out heat like a hot brick - seriously, this thing can melt ice cubes in less than a minute. Which is not all that useful, but if you have nothing better to do you could look at this site, which compiles the Top 10 Time-Wasting Sites on the internet today. I wonder how much time it took to compile that list...?

Thanks to all those who sent their well-wishes during my last few weeks of illness... oh wait, nobody did. Well, thanks to those who might have thought about it, then forgot; after all, especially at this time of year, its the thought that counts. And chicken soup doesn't keep hot long during shipping... too bad.

One Year in BC This Week

It seems the only Comments on this Blog come from spiders... isn't that odd?

Oct 27 - I wanna be ...

As you may have guessed, when I was a wee lad I wanted, like many boys, to be an astronaut... and a cowboy, but at that age I wasn't sure how I'd be able to balance two such involving careers. Now that I have been in the workforce for nigh unto twenty years, no time of which has been spent as either an astronaut or cowboy, I've gained a little perspective. Hard, hard work folks, that's what it takes to get into space, or to mend hundred-mile fences in Wyoming, for that matter. Still, just recently Sir Richard Garriott made a trip into space, which although still a very expensive trip is not entirely beyond the realm of rich civilians... which means that Space Trips for the Common Man are not all that far away, as this concept illustrates.

Oct 28 - Art thou?

I'm always fascinated by new art forms, though some tend to take things to extremes simply for the controversy they generate: remember the meat dress way back in 1987? In any case, I stumbled across this new( is it? )method of illustrating... with water. The way the image appears in moments with an application of ink is stunning, like some kind of CGI effect. I have made a note to pick up a copy of the graphic novel that this technique debuted in, Alan's War. Apparently it is quite a good read!

Not all art is created equal though. Oftentimes, when boredom and office supplies combine, you get this as a result. Somehow, I don't see it resulting in a gallery show, but I have to give credit to the creator of this site, for combining his love of Trek and ASCII... both somewhat dead forms of art, in their way.

Oct 29 - Bacon!

Are you ready for it?

Really ready?

May I present the ultimate sandwich spread: Baconnaise!

Yes. It's true! You can now have the smoky goodness of bacon on ANY sandwich, without the short shelf life and messy preparation that REAL bacon demands! Simply slice and spread, then enjoy... it reminds me of a product I absolutely loved in my teen years: Goober. Yes, it was peanut butter and jelly combined in ONE jar, with alternating stripes of jelly goodness and peanut butter crunch. Only the folks at Smucker's could have thought of such a thing - some of their other products are equally as unique, and delicious too!

Which leads to Unique Foods, a lovely Canadian website that has some great products - my fave is Stewart's Root Beer, which my local Thrifty's carries., along with a few of the many other Stewart's flavours. For which I am quite grateful, though the stuff is as much per bottle as a 2L container of A&W Root Beer. I'm not sure why I like root beer so much; the taste is something that I just don't get tired up. I've tried to like Doctor Pepper, Pepsi, Coca-Cola... well, I was a Coke fiend in high school, drinking a 2L of Coke every few days, but I had to stop when the acid levels started making my stomach react. Now, I can't even touch the stuff; it burns like real acid when I drink it. Not that I mind having root beer as a fave; root beer floats are just so much better than anything else. Dang; I have to go pour myself a glass after writing this!

Oct 30 - Acting Up

Perfect roles. These are what happens when an actor and a character combine to create a role that defines that character forevermore, and oftentimes typecasts the actor as JUST that role for the rest of their career. Examples that spring to mind are Leonard Nimoy and Spock, Carrie Fisher and Princess Leia, and Tom Baker as Doctor Who - read his fascinating bio. Of the many perfect roles out there, my secret fave is Tom Baker... he slipped into the role of The Doctor so perfectly that it was hard for me to imagine anyone else ever playing the character, despite the fact that there have been no less than seven different actors, the latest of whom was Christopher Eccleston. The manic grin, the long knit scarf and the mass of crazy hair all made Baker's Doctor a delight to watch on-screen, despite the low-budget special effects of the time and the oftentimes swiss-cheezy excuses for plots.

Or you could just get Uwe Boll to make another film, which is like asking the Star Wars Kid to be the next Luke Skywalker... it hurts even thinking about it.

Oct 31 - Spook Time!

I love halloween. There is just something about being able to dress up as something or someone OTHER than yourself, and go out into the world for one night when nobody looks twice at a ghoul, ghost goblin or other sight walking brazenly down the street. Well, no more than three looks, anyway.

Costumes are what it is all about, so every year I have a look for the latest, greatest and simply stunning costumes that people come up with. Many are from the worldwife Cosplay community, which draws inspiration from video games, anime and many other types of media, where people dress up like their favourite characters. Some are truly inspired, while others are... less so. Still, when you have fans who come up with almost perfect replicas of characters like Iron Man( here is the movie suit prop ) or Master Chief from Halo, one must recognize the incredible talent, time and hard work that goes into such creations. Too bad you can't really wear them out anywhere other than on Halloween or to conventions... but you could also see real exoskeletal suits sooner than you think!

Pumpkins are a traditional favourite for Halloween, and there are many amazing examples of the pumpkincarver's art online.

As for my day: I worked the evening shift... in costume. Seeing as nobody out here had seen my barbarian outfit( with goatee! )yet, I recycled it again for this year and it proved to be a hit! Many people asked me where I had "bought" it ... they couldn't believe that it was a cobbled-together outfit from different materials I had done myself. So that was nice to hear; makes me wonder what I can put together for next year? After work, I went for a walk with some of my pirate-themed neighbours around the neighbourhood here in Fairfield, which was damned quiet after 10pm; apparently the downtown is quite the zoo, and there are lots of parties all over town, but that wasn't my thing this year. It was enough to check out all the great Halloween decorations on many houses - see this and this as examples of the fine work people put into decorating this year.

We ended up wandering around the edges of the Ross Bay Cemetary, one of Canada's oldest and largest surviving Victorian-era cemetaries. We did not go in, as it was heavily patrolled by security tonight, for obvious reasons, plus they seemed rather heavy-handed and disinclined to allow anyone in at all. Still, it was fairly creepy, as any cemetary is a much different place in the dark and morseo on All Hallows Eve. Not being supersticious myself, I still felt a reluctance to wander amongst the dead on a night when all things supernatural are celebrated, in a tradition that has survived its origins from the Feast of Samhain started by the Celtic Druids over two milennia ago - more on that here.

Nov 1 - One Year in BC !!

Well, what to say? I've been here for a year, and I have to say this place now feels like home to me.

Some people would( and have )moved out here only to find shortly that they could not bear to be away from family, friends and familiar places. Several people I have worked with here in BC have done exactly that; unable to create a new life or reconcile it with their roots, they decided to return home and give up on trying to make something new here.

How am I finding it, my own experience here on the West Coast? Honestly, I would have to say that most days, I have no regrets. I knew moving out here would mean changes for me, in many ways, but I am surprised at how easy it was to settle in here, especially knowing that my parents were nearby enough to both keep an eye on and to help out as needed. Having a support network is vital, especially for one's mental balance; knowing that your nearest family is thousands of miles away would have been very hard on me, given that I have such a close relationship with my parents and sister - something I am extremely grateful for and try never to take for granted, knowing how rare such a thing is.

Personally, I have been pleased my my development outside of work, in that I have managed to well, manage my time better. As odd as it may sound, I am enjoying having more 'me' time to do with as I see fit - I had been annoyed back in ON that I never seemed to get the time I needed each day to get MY projects fully seen to. Indeed, I would not have been able to write this blog back in ON, I think, simply because I lacked both the time and the perspective to put the work INTO it. Having something NEW to say, every week, without retreading old topics, is a challenge I have enjoyed meeting this year.

Having my own place, unshared accommodations, is a change and a challenge as well. Not that I never had my own space, but the fact that I do not have to accommodate other's needs in my daily activities makes a difference in making the most of my time.

I think the hardest thing has been to be so far away from my friends. I've come to realize I have a LOT of friends, which is humbling when I really think about all the fantastic people I know and have known in my life. Listening to a few folk I have worked with and gone to school with, I now understand that most people tend to have a few good friends, some work/sports club/gaming associates, and those peripheral folk you run into in the mall once in a while and ask how their dog is doing. Since I make an ongoing effort never to categorize people as 'peripheral' and instead put everyone into 'friend' it has amazed me the number of fantastic folk I can include in my life. Well, included a little more often when I was back in ON, but you see my point. Not being a social butterfly, as well as being very able to spend quality time for hours with only myself as a conversationalist, I still find myself missing those weekly trips to the Kilt, or Steebs, or any of the innumerable fun things I did in Niagara.

Yet what did it add up to? I have to ask myself this, as I have perspective( yes, that word again )out here after a year now. The urban horror scenario of working at the same job, with no real room for advancement, doing the same things month after month, year after year... I am not sure if you can call it ambition, but perhaps better label it as a need for Change. Some years ago, quite a few in fact, I was struck by a sudden vision: a ten-year veteran of MMart, plugging away at night on a novel, hoping to be published, yet never feeling like I was accomplishing anything or getting any OTHER work or interests covered. Apart for the glow of friends and family support, one year would tend to seem like another.

So that was when I decided I needed a change. My parent's retirement was coming up, and considering all the incredible trials my family had been through up to that point, I was still unsure as to my own direction / habitation / general life plan. Thus, I dug in and started to seriously research places to live in Canada, with an eye towards new careers and / or affordability. After a lot of looking, I had settled on three places: Victoria, Edmonton or Calgary. The latter two were chosen for their rapid economic growth, and Edmonton as the location of BioWare, a game company I would have dearly loved to work for BEFORE they were bought by Electronic Arts - smart choice, not moving there after all!

Then the wheels were set in motion, slowly building up to my move date of Nov 1st 2007. And here I am, writing this blog a long, long way from where I grew up, in many senses of the phrase. Pleased, for all that, to be able to do so as I am.

Nov 2 - The Day After

Some thoughts brought on by another visit from the Crazy Lady... who astonishingly was NOT crazy today, though I thought I saw her head spin around once from the corner of my eye. Stressful? Yep.

After dealing with the public for as long as I have, I feel I have developed a decent understanding and cognant opinions of How People Tick. Apart from the need for food, shelter and emotional satsifaction, I find that many people can be( generally )categorized into either a) Nice people who CAN be nasty or b) Nasty people who can be nice. Nice people have their bad days, and a lot of people have thin skins, enough so that even a modicum of daily stress can make them snappish, rude and prone to bad decisions. Generally, dealing with Nice people is not a problem for me, as my skills are such that I can both improve their day AND get them what they need( maybe even want, too )without too much trouble.

It is the Nasty people that generate 90% of daily stress for others; they do it simply by being themselves. Selfishness is the root cause: what THEY want matters most, so any means justifies that end. In order to facilitate not getting their noses broken by everyone they meet, Nasty people usually hide behind a facade of Nice, just long enough to determine a situation's parameters. In customer service, they can come right out and Be Themselves, as the 'customer is always right' policy of most businesses these days means that Nasty people can walk all over staff within reason, dispensing with common courtesy in favour of Getting What They Want as quickly as possible, so they can move on and bother someone new. Unfortunately, most businesses NEED business to survive, and given that Nasty people spend money as freely as Nice people means that staff members have to grit their teeth and only imagine broken noses shocking some manners into the Nasty people they have to deal with. The fact that many companies make it very easy for Nasty people to file complaints about 'difficult' store staff is another stress factor for customer service employees: if a Nasty person doesn't Get What They Want, then they simply call a company head office, rant for a bit in their natural state, and cause grief for hard-working employees simply because they can... and for some Nasty people, this is a source of enjoyment, much as bullies enjoy being able to attack others with impunity, again and again.

In any case, I got through my day well enough, and the time change meant that I was headed home in the dark... but only for a few more months before winter begins its retreat. Now that our branch is open 11-7 most days, I can sleep in and get home in time for a decent dinner hour. 10pm dinners don't do it for me.


Okay, we have another week down... who knows what lies around the corner? We shall see - after all, Christmas is coming...

Weirdos, Writing and Weather

No mention of spiders in this week's blog... though there IS a new entry in my Nemster list...

Oct 13 - Humans... and not.

Newt and John, a webcomic by my good friend Mike, reached their 20th episode milestone today. I've greatly enjoyed their adventures so far, as their antics capture the hilarity of two roomies dealing with bizarre adventures. I should also mention that I have a great custom image of Newt, John and myself in a spaceship, that Mike made as a going-away gift for me last year when I left for B.C. - it hangs proudly by my door, so I can get a grin every time I arrive or leave my home.

Along the same vein, I give you: The Basic Laws of Human Stupidity. Not to be confused with Human Idiocy, or even the silly things people do when they think No-One Is Watching. One VERY early internet List I love is the Evil Overlord List, which manages to combine villainy, cliches and stupidity remarkably well... if you don't laugh, then you haven't thought hard enough about how to take over the world. You should watch a few episodes of Pinky and the Brain, just to see how NOT to go about it... especially if you're two lab mice.

Which brings up movies. Now, I've already posted about how I MUCH prefer to watch movies at home nowadays, so I won't go into that. Here, I will instead briefly blog about Things That Only Happen in the Movies... like every car explodes in a fireball when it crashes, or how locks magically vanish from doors with a few quick shots from a pistol. A show that has done its fair share of debunking movie myths is the much-loved Mythbusters, who by and large have managed credible experiments to test the accuracy of many a Myth. If you visit their site, you can see the many myths they have discussed but NOT brought to the show to test, for various reasons. I guess testing to see if humans mutate into anger-driven giant berserkers after massive gamma-ray exposure would be one of those off-air theories... darn.

Oct 14 - Hard work and gadgets

I had an interesting thought in the shower today, and it was entirely unrelated to hygiene. It occurred to me that everyone who achieves success always includes the phrase "it was a lot of hard work" - we hear it so much but it makes little visual impact. I had the image of a chain hoist pop into my head, like the ones mechanics use to hoist engine blocks. The analogy almost writes itself: the huge, complicated engine needs lots of work and know-how to run, but the initial process of GETTING to it is the hardest work. Each long pull on the chain hoist raises the massive engine a tiny bit, so long minutes of hard work are needed to raise the final product fractionally until one reaches the point where the detail work can begin. It is an analogy I like, and I hope to employ at a future date.

As for the future: I love gadgets, and one of the places I loved to go to FIND gadgets years ago was The Sharper Image, which had a store at the Walden Galleria mall in Buffalo NY. You could wander in, and on every shelf or floor display was a gadget you had never before imagined, or knew you needed, until that moment. Looking back, it is easy to see how most of it was overpriced and usually fufilled only a single, quasi-time-saving. That and Smithbooks were the two main reasons I liked to visit the Walden Galleria... as well as the fact that most of the food there seemed damned cheap compared to Canadian restaurants at the time. Lower standards or higher volume consumption? You decide.

Oct 15 - Writing, yep!

I have been plugging away at various writing projects, but progress has been slow of late - low energy and higher stress levels do not bode well for the creative spark. Still, I have been trying to keep various bits of writing advice in mind, including 'use your mood' to find different aspects of character and story that one would not find if you are feeling happy, energetic and relaxed... none of which relate to grim stories, villains or dire plot threads. So, with that in mind, I have been plugging away at outlined plot points, as well as tossing together little 'pastiche' bits to try and capture the mood at various points in my Novel Story.

One amusing place I have come across is How To Write a Best-Selling Fantasy Novel. Go see it.

Among all the great advice given, one common thread seems to be "You won't likely get rich from writing," which is fine by me... Fame, Fortune and Respect do not always go hand in hand, with J.K Rowling as the glaring platinum Ideal of Writing Success that everyone else has to try to follow. I figure if I can say what I want to say, in a way that other people want to read, and that brings in a little income, then all for the good. Like the other writers state, everyone is full of great ideas, so it is the few who learn to use the TOOLS of writing to HONE their skill, that will bring those with Talent to the top of the heap... with a little luck. *grin*

So if you cannot tell your adjectives from your adverbs, or what narrative perspective to use, or even notice why your page-long paragraphs seem to be boring people... then perhaps writing is not in your cards. So go be a professional poker player instead - from what I hear, your odds of success are much higher!

Oct 16 - Triad Thursday of Stress

Well, today COULD have been the day from hell, but it worked out nicely when all was said and done, despite a lot of unavoidable stress. Right after I opened the store, who showed up but... a company auditor! We had been warned that this week was a likely time for an audit, which they do quarterly( or more often )so I was not as dismayed as I could have been. Still, it meant I spent most of my day worrying that we had forgotten some detail that would crash our overall score - not having a manager at the branch will make you thing like that.

Adding to the joy was a visit by the head honcho for all of BC for our company, attended by our district manager. He was nice, but I got the impression of laser eyes noting every tiny flaw in the branch, and likely an unconscious urge to slip on a pair of dapper white gloves to run along the counters for dust. Still, I was busy enough that everyone stayed in the background doing their thing and not underfoot or looking over my shoulder, which was nice...

Did I mention yet that Crazy Lady came in today TOO? Yes, she managed to add to the Stress Triad today by coming in for NO reason other than to ask the most inane question I've heard YET. Apparently her sister, which she sent the money transfer to last week, is not in the UK but Zimbabwe... so she wants ME to call Western Union to ensure the transfer is 'held' ... and ALSO she did NOT want ANY calls made to HER residence about it! Apparently she is doing this on the sly... which I do not care a whit about, only that she vacate the branch and stop bothering me. Especially with inane questions and demands that I have NO ability( or desire )to fulfill, even if I wanted to. Amusingly, the Head Man from Head Office( heh )tried to break into the conversation, but backed off quickly as the Insane Gaze rolled in his direction... kind of like seeing that normal-looking dog in the park turn around to reveal the foam dripping from its jaws. Yeah.

Anyway, she left, the rest of them left... and then I left, to sprawl at home in a daze before relaxing with a few episodes of Atlantis. The second season has a commentary for almost EVERY episode, which is amazing - some of the details and directorial chatter is simply fascinating, as it shows how MUCH thought goes into every episode, and how you never catch some of it as it goes by so fast on-screen.

Oct 17 - Is it Day-ta or Dah-ta?

The morning vanished quickly getting the usual household doings done, then it was off to work. Fortunately, it was another nice day out; I have yet to run into the chill combination of very cool weather and rain, so cross yer fingers, as biking in that is no fun at all.

I found out today that the branch hours will be changing again in November, which will be for the better in several ways. Not the least of which is that I can sleep in EVERY day now, and manage to get home early enough to catch an hour or so of daylight around dinner - nice in the winter!

I've been looking at some storage options for my data for some time now, as I always like to have backups handy in case of disaster. Up to this point, that has always meant storage on an external hard drive, or putting critical files like family photos on DVD; annoying given their 'small' capacity, which meant a few years ago after a PC went wonky that I used THIRTY DVD's to back up and then restore my data. Impossible today, as I have ten times the data stored now as I did back then.

One solution may be a FREE service called aDrive.com, which gives ANYONE free online storage - 50 gigabytes worth! Their business model is based on duplication; they predict that among their entire userbase, many users will have copies of the same file, so all that aDrive has to do is determine that yes, two files ARE the same, and store just ONE copy while allowing both users to access it. In this way, the 'actual' space used by files such as MP3's or YouTube videos is greatly reduced. Nice, and if it keeps the service FREE, then I am all for it!

Oct 18 - Leafing Sunny

Cold this morning, not TOO bad at 7 degrees C, cold enough to see your breath though. The leaves are falling in small drifts along the roadside, though many trees are still quite green and leafy. I did see the most massive Canadian maple leaf today - the thing was as large as my two spread hands together! Wow! It could almost serve as a plate of sorts, though being dead and slight decayed might put a person off.

The sun is blazing outside, albeit without a lot of warmth... and people are smiling! I've always been fascinated by how people's moods and the weather are related, so today goes a long way towards adding data to that file. Without exception, every single customer today has been smiling, even the usually dour regulars, and all of them are busily scurrying about Doing Things.

It's amusing to see how quickly we get busy when the sun comes out... and odd how busy we remain when it is raining - my theory is that people don't like being 'trapped' at home on rainy days, but instead want to get out and shop or socialize at a mall or coffee shop. Group social dynamics is a fascinating field, which has elements of psychology and statisical analysis that combine in interesting and unusual ways.

Oct 19 - Sunday Harry

The third of my Month of Sundays today, and it was Not Too Bad. Relaxing, actually, as it was steady enough a flow of customers to make the clock move nicely towards closing time. I still love the fact that I have such a great view - the branch is located near a major intersection, and I have previously mentioned that a bus transfer point is next to the plaza too. Lots of activity to watch, which is great - no view of the mountains mind you, but it beats hell out of the backside of a building.

My neighbours are HUGE fans of Harry Potter, so when I ran into one of them on the stairs today, of course the topic ran to old Harry. Seems the latest film has been delayed until spring 2009, which still gives us( my neighbours )time to 'catch up' on all the previous films in HD - thanks for the sale, Amazon! I still find it odd that so many HD-DVD's are still so pricey, even six months after the annoucement that Blu-Ray had won the DVD War in early 2008. Which annoys me still, as Blu-Ray is still quite feature-sparse compared to HD-DVD; being able to pop up a scene menu WHILE still watching a movie is immensely liberating, as were other features of HD-DVD. Again, the Market Has Spoken, not the techs... too bad. My experience has always been that people will buy whatever's cheapest, and learn to live with it - hello, Dollar Stores.

Notice how the links tapered off towards the end, and the last entry had NO links at all? Ta!

Searches, Spaghetti and Satchels

Being weather-sensitive has its ups and downs... so right now, with all the blah weather this week, I am feeling distinctly lacking in energy and verve. Good thing I have a sunlamp!

Oct 6th - Crazy Foreign Folk

Ah, Mondays. When you want to start off the week right...

Today marked the return of Crazy Lady from the UK. Yes, the same one who made my day a living hell back on Aug. 26th returned today to send some money back to the poor bastards who have to admit to knowing her across the pond - maybe they exiled her here? She was relatively restrained today, though regrettably not in a straitjacket. I was sweetness and light while serving her, in hopes of getting the hell out of the branch before her eyes rolled back in her head and the vomit started spewing. Still, she managed to complain that the branch "didn't smell right"( we have an Irish Cafe and a Chinese Restaurant on each side, respectively )as well as trying to start an argument about how... *ahem* Yes, I have to write this: how I had not properly underlined the rate of exchange.. which is a courtesy, as it's plainly printed on her receipt. Valiantly, I stopped myself from rolling my eyes - instead, I simply circled the relevant section and moved to the next customer. Would you believe she stood at the counter for another five minutes, trying to think of something else to complain about, before finally leaving? The man I was serving waited until she had left, then said "If she was any unhappier, the rain would be following her around." I grinned, but said nothing, of course.

One little factoid for you about money transfers: in Italy, getting a telegram is considered by many to be a Bad Omen, as most telegrams are notices that a family member has died. Telling someone you are receiving a wire transfer is MUCH better, as saying "I'm waiting for a telegram" will get you some shocked looks. Unfortunately, I have a feeling this is related to people who think black cats are bad luck... and in Italy, being a black cat is likely to lead to a shortened life, again at the hands of the ignorant. Some more Italian Superstitions can be found here, sans tomato sauce.

Related to that, we have this gallery of people who just don't care about others... when they park. Seems the world is full of folks who couldn't give a crap for their fellow man, or at least not while they are in a hurry to shop before the store / mall / beer store closes.

Oct 7th - Hauling Out the Pack

Ironing. Why, you ask, do clothes still need to be freed of wrinkles, decades after the invention of the Leisure Suit? As you may have guessed, I used part of my day today to catch up on the ironing, and it was not nearly as bad as I thought. There is something soothing about seeing a wrinkled mass of fabric turn into a smooth set of planes demarcated by buttons and seams. Modern fabrics are catchup up though, but still it is a slow road to the elimination of the iron from today's household.

I also went through the storage locker at my parent's place and found a few more 'missing' items, including my beloved Spalding satchel, not to be confused with a rucksack( the German word for backpack )or a messenger bag. This green bag( my fave colour, btw )got me through university and innumerable gaming sessions carrying extra-heavy loads of books, and is still in amazing shape. Now I'll be using it mainly as a laptop bag, which is a form of retirement, I guess... going easy on the satchel after all those years of hard work.

Though... maybe I should have bought a backpack back then, given all the shoulder strain involved. Kids today have it even worse, as this CNN article shows. Which is why I am all for projects like OLPC, which aims to give every child in the world a laptop, which in part would eliminate some of the heavy books toted to and from school. Along the same lines, Better World Books aims to raise social awareness while preventing thousands of books from being wasted - all from the work of two college students. Given the fact that many online book companies are merging, like the merging of local Victoria AbeBooks and Amazon.com, it's good to see smaller independents remaining, well, independent.

Oct 8th - Mad Max Lives!

For some reason Mad Max has been running around in my head this week. Perhaps the dated news that Mad Max 4 is in development, or that I found out that a die-cast version of the Interceptor is now available for fans... who knows? As I have mentioned before, apocalyptic stories, movies and related paraphernalia appeal to me, and the Max Max series of films was always well-realized. Other favourites of mine were the Wasteland game for the venerable AppleIIe, followed by its incomparable( and unofficial )sequel, Fallout. A fairly complete list of such games can be found here, and a great place that compiles all sorts of apocalyptic media is, well, Post-Apocolyptic Media.

An inevitable fallout of the Nuclear Crisis of the Sixties was the fallout shelter. You can read a little about these rad rec rooms at BadFads.com, which also compiles such things as the HackeySack and... the Leisure Suit! I think what I find fascinating about such things is that we can look back with the perspective of years and ask ourselves "What the heck was so great about it?"

Well, cheer up - have a look at an end of the world scenario, with zombies... and Lego!

Oct 9th - Churches That Aren't

Again with the Mad Max today... though it was due to the weather. The cold, actually: it was only five degrees outside whilst cycling to work, and let me tell you, that's not pleasant. Though most of me is fairly well covered, my face isn't, so cold air plus windchill equals a rather rosy nose and cheeks... which have been staying rosy for hours, ouch. So I popped on my smog mask, purchased a few years back for the joyful Smog Days of Summer in St. Catharines, and that seemed to do the trick. Though I looked a lot like one of the bandit drivers from the Mad Max movies, I was in good company: four Olympic cyclists showed up in Beijing last August wearing smog masks.

On a special note: the Church of the Banana v.2 went live, and will be continually improved as time permits. With our massive creative time and powerful drive for success, we should see our traffic double in no time... or within a few months, we hope. Tell your friends!

Some of you may remember back in May of 2005, that the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster was born. Though the Church of the Banana was not sparked from the same kind of debate of Evolution versus Directed Creationism, it can be said that the COTFSM was inspirational in that it still exists today, and inspires others to fight against society's stupider elements, some of them religious, some not. I mention this because I actually SAW a COTFSM 'fish' symbol today on a bumper of a car at a stoplight, and I managed to grab a picture of it. Hilarious! Take that, Jesus Fish... even the Darwin Fish has not the Hilarity Power of the COTFSM!

Oct 10th - Virtually Yours for the Asking

Thinking lately about superheroes, I found a useful site for those who find they have far too many enemies to deal with, and that their secretaries keep getting turned into lime jello by various death rays. Nemester.com is a wondeful place for a hero to compile a list of their dastardly counterparts.

Another site I have not visited for many a year is AskJeeves.com - which seems to be part search engine now, as well as a huge database of answers to questions on many topics. Back in the day, this sort of interactive database was new and shiny; many folk were thrilled just to see an answer pop up to their plain-english question instead of having to parse it word-by-word! Reminds me a little of the hype that surrounded Ananova.com, where a virtual talking head would read out the latest news in a 'realistic' simulation of a newscaster. Stories about how this sort of 'virtual actor' would replace traditional humans sprung up all over, but the tech quickly proved to be far behind the hype. Still, the subject is far from closed, and has ramifications for all of us, famous or not - if there is an image of you somewhere, does it belong to you, or someone else? Just for as long as you are alive, or for all time?

On that note, we jump from talk of virtual actors in LOTR to... Muppets and LOTR. If that appealed to your tastes, this candy version of the Battle For Helm's Deep will appeal even more. Enjoy!

Oct 11th - Searching for Life?

Considering I first heard the phrase "Google it!" from Spider Robinson at Torcon2003, searching the web is something I have managed to develop into a decent skill. Which means basically, that I do not waste too much time DOING my searches, as I arrive at results fairly quickly. For those of us who shudder when we see the phrase "1,450,000 Search Results" Google offers some basic tips. You can also find a more comprehensive guide here - you can amuse yourself by searching these three keywords: French, mlitary, victories ... and seeing how many results pop up.

While searching something local, I found this interesting tidbit from the past. Sixty-nine years ago today, a Victoria woman by the name of Ethel McCall had her story run in the Victoria Times Colonist on October 11th, 1939. It was about the early days of the submarine war from WWII, when the Germans in the early days of the conflict behaved much like their counterparts from more civilized eras. Too bad it degenerated so quickly into the modern mess we all know today.

On searches too: For a few years now I have been running a program called BOINC, which utilizes unused computer time to help with various computing projects around the world. Since I usually leave my PC on, I just let BOINC use it when I don't, to help search for cures to various diseases. I used to run a SETI@Home search program, but that's been doing very well recently. Now that the cool weather has moved in, leaving the PC on all day doesn't run the risk of overheating it, and the warm air really helps to keep my apartment cozy at the same time - I'll likely not turn on my gas fireplace until well into December, given my large south-facing windows and the extra insulation I've added to the walls of the place.

Oct 12th - Tic, Tac, Time

My, how time flies... or gets scribbled on bits of paper. Already the end of another week, and still so much left to do. Though one has to admire folk like Kate Kelton, whose claim to fame is... TicTacs.

Work was interesting today, in that a steady, simple day with just dull rain outside turned unusual at about an hour to closing time. Without warning( is there ever? )a massive power outage hit the Island - over 200,000 homes and businesses were affected, which included most of the South Island and so all of Victoria. It was off for over an hour, which was well past the branch's closing time. Of course, we had the usual brightsparks who peered in the darkened door both before AND after the posted closing times, looking confused. Perhaps they didn't notice the little clue that the WHOLE CITY was blacked out, and that maybe, just maybe, most places of business would NOT be open without power for little things like lights? Sometimes I wonder about how observant the general public is... then days like today confirm my already low opinion.

Though I did get a ride home, so cycling on the darkened streets was not to be...

Dang - I forgot to mention yodeling! Oh well... it's late on Thanksgiving Monday, and I just want to relax for a few hours tonight. More on Turkey Day next week!

Time, Trips and TV

The week started off slow, but picked up steam as it went along... and only a little over a week now until Niagara - hooray! Added Aug 29th entry update on 9/3rd.

Aug 25th - Recovery in Time

Still working on recovering from my cold today, though all that remains is a total lack of energy. At least it didn't develop into any other stages; I hate coughing and sneezing. A lot. At least I had plenty to keep me occupied, though I did drift in and out of consciousness a lot more than usual today, for a day off. Waking up suddenly from the middle of a game of Civ:Rev can be disconcerting, as I tend not to fall asleep easily when feeling well.

I did manage to finish reading the third book in the Island in the Sea of Time series, entitled On the Oceans of Eternity - a massive book, as they all were, and utterly engrossing in their detail. Other favourite alternate history books of mine are the classic If the South Had Won the Civil War and The Peshawar Lancers. Some folk take it a little too far though, and examine EVERY point in history as a 'what if' - see some of the results here.

Aug 26th - Why me?

Another The Customer-Is-Always-Right day... boy, did I have a doozy today. In brief, the highlights: A woman was visiting from England, and didn't agree / understand / care about policies in Canada for money transfers. She carried on to a point where I was about to call the police to have her removed from the store - then I managed to foist her off onto Western Union, where she chewed a strip a mile wide through various levels of CSR's. After she managed to disconnect herself from them, and using my massive experience in Idiocy Deflection, I managed to get her the hell out of my store, WITH her transfer, and a fervent wish that the next foreign country she visits will have a standing policy of shooting monomaniacal foreigners who think they are Righter Than Thou, despite ignorance of a different country's rules, laws and common decency.

I only wish I could see the look on her face as they take the safety off and cock the hammer back... *sigh* Not really. But still: See Not-Always-Right.com for more amusement - I find the person asking a clerk at a dollar store how much a particular item is to be endlessly entertaining...

Aug 27th - Bananas and TV

So far, my lack of television has not made an appreciable dent in my day' schedule. If anything, I am now free to watch what I want, when I want - much as back when the VCR was introduced, followed by the PVR... anything I want to see is on the PC, on DVD, or on YouTube. In fact, I have been discovering a LOT of shows are on YouTube, some of which I had never expected to ever see again. Along with some things that perhaps are better seen once, then forgotten again... quickly.

On a side note, I received an email today which was a first: someone actually FOUND a website I had co-developed years ago both as a joke and exercise in web-building. Yet in my Inbox today sat a note that asked how one becomes a member of The Church of the Banana ... ? Well, to be honest, I'd never expected anyone to actually WANT to do more than laugh if they stumbled across the site... and frankly, I am not sure if we are going to respond, as anyone who WANTS to become One with the Great Banana kinda scares me. On several levels.

Aug 28th - Silent Voices

I did a bit of a double-take today while rooting around searching for voice actors, to add to my research about getting into that profession. To my sorrow, I found out that two actors whose work I had so admired in some of my faviorite shows had died, in both cases several years previous! Tony Jay, better known as Megabyte in ReBoot( and characters in countless other shows )passed on in August 2006. Preceding him into the Binomial Abyss was the aptly-named Long John Baldry, who also voiced several characters in ReBoot and had a solid singing career. In both cases, they had voices that were utterly distinctive and recognizable in any work they did.

There's just something that appeals to me about the voice acting. Having a good voice is a must, but one has to be flexible in many ways. Though people like Rich Little have obviously been gifted with voices and mimicry beyond almost anyone, most voice actors are still able to voice several dozen different types of characters - hence the term 'actor' you will note. Unlike some limited voice actors, or people like Sugar( formerly of YTV, whose voice is incredibly high )the whole idea is NOT to get typecast - while certain roles may be perfect for YOUR voice, they do not come along each day, so you cannot make a living doing just ONE type of voice. Heck, look at John Tesh... he's still hosting a radio show, albeit a very popular one in syndication. Plus a singing career. Hmmm....

Aug 29th - Deadly Dust

EDIT: I almost forgot - I attended BluesBash'08 tonight, with a few of my neighbours. We stopped at the Market Square for dinner first, to eat at Green Cuisine, a buffet-style all-vegetarian place. Amusingly, the most popular menu item were the fries... though I liked the veggie falafel. In any case, we settled in for a COLD evening by the water to watch Jim Byrnes, along with special guests The Sojourners. It was a great crowd, and Jim related quite a few touching stories about his long musical career and the Blues. Oh, and the music was good too. *grin*

I had to make a dash for Starbuck's though, as the concession booths only had one hot drink: coffee, and none of us drank that. So I skipped to Starbuck's at the Bay Center to pick up some drinks; hot chocolate for me, and some weird needed-a-full-page-written-on-a-napkin green drink for the others. Reminded me of hot Romulan Ale, for as Scotty would have said after a sniff: "It's ... it's green." We were the only ones there with Starbucks; my smiling charm got me past the gate guards, who could relate to the lack of hot bevvy variety at the fest. Go me!

An odd thing happened to my PC today, which scared me for about ten minutes until I ran out of creative technical swear-phrases. In short: my screen went black & white, then blank. Period. Seeing as this is my one and only machine for the vast majority of work I do apart from my day job, I understandably started to sweat bullets.

Fortunately, a little down-time seemed to fix the error, and a thorough cleaning actually cooled the blue beast down some more - dust does tend to build up in there, all too quickly. Ironically, I am writing a 'Basic PC Maintenance Guide' for Cyberwalker.com, so perhaps my own PC is trying to tell me to finish the Guide off soonest! I guess I will have to get my air cleaning going again in the main room.

Or buy a new computer. I must admit, lagging so far behind the technical edge is starting to become a bother, especially since I can only do a few things at a time before the beast overloads. *sigh* Maybe in the new year... one of these would be nice, but I would settle happily for one of these, and so would my wallet, at that!

Another reason for a new PC: Fallout 3. I have a penchant for post-apocolyptic: Mad Max, Deathlands( the earlier books are much better )and After the Bomb are all favourites of mine. Something about mutants, radiation and the fact that the customer service industry would be reduced simply to having shotguns held ready under counters as a final measure appeals to me greatly.

Aug 30th - Friendship

I had an interesting line of thought run around my brain today, as it has on occasion over the years. Whilst ruminating on the various friendships I have formed over the years, I once again thought about the vagaries of life that occur to toss people together, and tear them apart again. Childhood friends, school friends, work friends, social friends, family friends, online friends... the list of friends is as many and as varied as one can imagine - meeting people can happen anywhere, from the grocery store to in the middle of a river.

What I find interesting is how MANY of these friends that one keeps over the years, and at what level. I have known people who have few friends, but those they have are very close, like family. Other people seem transitory, changing friends every year and swapping social circles like socks. Happily, in my own case I have been very lucky to have met some fine friends early in life, and continued the trend all along. I count many dozens of people among those whom I am proud to call friend, from all walks of life and all manner of meetings.

One person who has made a study of friendships, a Prof. Dunbar, has come up with something now being referred to as 'Dunbars Number. In essence, the good prof theorizes that people are hardwired to not have more than 150 friends at any one time. The theory is mentioned in this article, which is a good read. I find it fascinating, as I am using technology to stay in touch with my far-flung friends - this blog is but one example of such.

Aug 31st - Nanaimo: not just a tasty dessert

I spent the day today traveling to the lovely city of Nanaimo, 1.5 hours north of Victoria, about the size of St. Catharines. I've enjoyed day trips on the Island, as I have not spent much time outside the Greater Victoria region - much the same as travelling to Toronto from the Niagara region. Only FAR greener, and with a LOT more mountain scenery.

We stopped along the way at the town of Chemianus, whose claim to fame are dozens of outdoor murals in the main downtown area. Apparently the local sport is Tourist Dodging, which is played much the same around the world as in Niagara Falls: dodge your car around various idiot tourists with cameras, who are looking at everything BUT the Big Dangerous Metal Things on the roads!

Lunch was at the Crow & Gate, a reproduction English Pub located way back in the country roads of Cedar, B.C. It is an authentic British Pub( built in 1972 )right down to the low ceilings, massive use of wood everywhere and the Bar Ordering System. Yes, that's right: you line up at the bar to place your order and pay BEFORE the meal, get your drinks, and then the food is brought out to you. Slow and inefficient, but it's authentic... and you get the chance to talk to your fellow line-goers in the bargain. It was a little cold to sit outside, but they had a lovely English garden surrounding the pub, including a pond with, of all things, black swans! Photo op!

Nanaimo itself was very... hilly. Everything descended to the sea from the hills, with the downtown core in an L-shape whose long end pointed away from the ocean and towards the brand-spankin' new shopping mall. Yep, all that way and we ended the trip wandering around a half-completed mall.. with a new Best Buy, the first on the island. I scored some dirt-cheap 'Grand Opening Special' SD memory cards and an Ultimate Edition of The Fifth Element, one of my all-time favourite films. Go Milla Jovovitch...! Did I mention she's starred in several apocolyptic films, like Resident Evil? And did I also mention she sings?

Sadly, I'd developed a stinker of a headache from the trip, perhaps due to the lovely sunny skies - high air pressure ya know. I am pleased to report that I have suffered FAR fewer headaches here in BC than I did in Ontario ... likely due to the much more stable barometric pressure levels that can trigger headaches in some people, such as myself. So I begged off dinner plans and sank into a Tylenol-induced snooze for a few hours, to wake feeling moderately human again, though not enough to do more than putter on the PC until snoozing.


That's a wrap - for some reason this week's blog just would NOT flow until the late hours turned into the early hours. Ah well - it's on paper, so to speak, and I can sleep.