WoW, Warnings and Weddings

I'm writing this again on a Monday, which did not get off to a good start at all - more about that next week.

May 4 - Voices and MMO's

Dom DeLuise passed away today, at the not-so-old age of 76 years. His voice was instantly recognizable in the many animated works he was a part of, my favourite of which was The Secret of Nimh, where he was perfectly cast as the bumbling crow Jeremy. He was even the voice of Pizza the Hutt in Spaceballs, one of Mel Brook's crazy-yet-classic films. Having such a distinctive voice is a blessing, for the most part, though today flexibility is the watchword. Being able to create dozens( or more )of unique voices is the best thing for a voice actor, as it makes him or her extremely attractive to a studio: for the cost of one actor, they can get numerous voices in one package!

I've spoken about MMO's before, and the 'net is full of stories( however suspect )about how utterly engrossing they can be. While nobody wants to see someone with an addictive personality fall too deeply under the spell of anything, be it game, TV, or food, combining all three addictions into one is a Bad Thing in my view.

Enter the WoWpod: a self-contained World of Warcraft isolation experience. In other words, you no longer have to take toilet or food breaks while playing, and so risk having your WoW avatar die while you are away from the keyboard. This is the worst kind of invention: one that pretends to 'solve' a problem while in effect creating and perpetuating the problems of addictive personalities. While the South Park WoW episode was intensely funny( due to WoW's creators, Blizzard, contributing some Machinima animation )the WoWpod repels me completely... what next? Cutting off your legs, since you won't need to move from pod ever again?

May 5 - Rumour Has it.

I spent the day auditing another branch, which went rather quickly. Being familiar with audits from previous years still didn't prepare me for the sheer amount of paperwork it still involves. But, it was a pleasant change from standing at the counter for the same amount of time... and I didn't serve a single customer! Which reminds me...

Though I've mentioned them previously, it still bothers me sometimes when I get those inevitable 'Dire Warning!' emails from family and friends. While I appreciate the sentiment, in that they are trying to warn as many people as possible, in 99% of the cases the emails are simple self-propagating forms of spam: hoaxes that use social engineering to make endless rounds of people's email inboxes.

Take for example, this email I received this week( note the CAPS ):

IF A PERSON CALLED SIMON ASHTON ( SIMON25 at HOTMAIL.CO.UK ) CONTACTS YOU THROUGH EMAIL DON'T OPEN THE MESSAGE. DELETE IT BECAUSE HE IS A HACKER!!

TELL EVERYONE ON YOUR LIST BECAUSE IF SOMEBODY ON YOUR LIST ADDS HIM THEN YOU WILL GET HIM ON YOUR LIST. HE WILL FIGURE OUT YOUR ID COMPUTER ADDRESS, SO COPY AND PASTE THIS MESSAGE TO EVERYONE EVEN IF YOU DONT CARE FOR THEM AND FAST BECAUSE IF HE HACKS THEIR EMAIL HE HACKS YOUR MAIL TOO!!!!!...

*snip* and this one too:

THIS IS NO JOKE ( gee, that ALWAYS makes me take things seriously... )

Subject: 90# on your telephone.
You may want to pass this on to family or friends
( surprise, surprise... )
Re: 90# on your telephone.
I dialed '0' and asked the operator to confirm if this was correct, so please pass it on. ( again! )
I received a telephone call last evening from an individual identifying himself as a Telus Serviceman, who was conducting a test on the telephone-lines. He stated that to complete the test I should touch nine (9) and then zero(0 , followed by the pound sign (#), and then to hang up.
Luckily, I was suspicious, and I refused.
( duh - how many people actually get these kinds of random calls? )
Upon contacting the telephone company, I was informed that by pushing 90#, you are giving the requesting individual full access to your telephone line, which enables them to place long distance calls billed to your home phone number.
I was further informed that this scam has been originating from many of B.C's local Jails and Prisons.
( oh really? all those inmates with unmonitored phone lines in their cell blocks? )
DO NOT press 90# for ANYONE !
The GTE Security Department( no such thing )requested that I share this information with EVERYONE I KNOW.
( 3rd request to forward this email! )
After checking with Telus, they said it was true, so do not dial 90# for anyone!
PLEASE HIT THAT FORWARD BUTTON AND PASS THIS ON TO EVERYONE YOU KNOW.( that's 4 times now ASKING to fwd the email! )

Vivian Thompson,
Crime & Fraud Prevention Coordinator,
District 5
South Surrey RCMP,
British Columbia.
( note the 'official' connection at the end here )

Really, the BEST thing you can do for your friends and family is to check one of THESE sites FIRST, before you forward on anything like the above emails:

- Snopes.com - Hoax-Slayer.com - Scamtypes.com

Each of the above sites contains a searchable listing of most every kind of internet fraud, scam and hoax that has made its way around the internet, sometimes even having a history of HOW the things have changed over the years. In the case of the 'Simon' hoax, it's been around since... 1998!!!

May 6 - On Marriage

Call me old-fashioned, but I worry about marriage. Not in my particular case per se, but the idea and the institution in general. With divorce rates hovering around 50% these days and marriage rates declining, one has to wonder how lasting "Until death do us part" really is in the hearts of modern newlyweds. Not to mention the legal ramifications of it all... going halfsies on worldly goods stinks when separation and worse looms.

What is marriage, exactly? With that question in mind, I've perused various sites, done searches and thunk real hard on the subject... to come up with a whole lot of opinions, and a few facts. Marriage is commitment, it is compromise and it is confusing at times. It is a bond, a breakwater for stormy times and a beacon to guide others when it works. It is a hedge against dying alone, or for living alone in uncertain times, taking the sting from sorrow and brightening the smile from good fortune. It is the rock for family, the safe place from which a home develops and children grow into adults. Hopefully good ones, if the marriage is strong and the family is well-adjusted... or just patient.

Yet, for all that, I look around and see fewer people around me bearing golden rings - myself included. Does the modern age of casual sex, shifting commitments and uncertain economics mean that marriage, on rocky shoals since the swinging sixties, is doomed to die a slow death?

Or does the pervasive fear of dying alone mean that it will remain with us for the foreseeable future?

May 7 - Protect yourself!

An article from yesterday's paper is good news for the local economy here in Victoria: apparently building permits are on the rise again. The City of Langford did something here recently to help too: it waived fees for building permits in an effort to stimulate the economy locally, though there are quite a few projects underway at the moment all around town.

An ongoing thing for me at work is educating customers about ID Fraud, and even my co-workers. For such a devastatingly widespread and growing crime, few people actually know what to do to protect themselves from becoming victims. Similar to my mention about social engineering emails above, the best way to fight is to educate yourself.

You can start by reading this excellent article at C|Net about the subject, as it covers all the basics and has some scary stats to boot about the exponential growth of ID Fraud over the last decade. There is also a ton of useful information at the SafeCanada.ca website, which goes into useful detail about how to recognize such things as phishing and how to protect yourself and your family. Another good site for the basics is PhoneBusters.ca, a site operated by the RCMP and one that I give out regularly to customers when I feel they need to contact someone about possible fraud - very useful!

May 8 - Long Fridays

Today was an early day for me: part of renting with other folks is accommodating their needs, and in this case, my mom needed to hold a meeting for her Newcomer's Club at 9:30am today. So, I headed out WAY too early for work( 3 hours, actually )to go explore the Millstream shopping area. Specifically, I headed to the Starbuck's there to spend some time with Chai tea and complimentary internet. Big mistake: this particular Steebs was small, crowded and antiseptically decorated, the first such I have seen - it made me feel like I was walking into a McDonald's that had run out halfway through a meager decorating budget. Unwilling to spend a few hours listening to the blasting roar of beans being ground next to my head in the only available chair, I went outside on the patio under grey skies to briefly surf, as long as my tea remained hot to ward off the chill in the air. I will say this much: large patio sizes do not make up for staring at four lanes of traffic, mixed with screaming ambulances and diesel-chugging construction vehicles. About as ugly a morning out as I can recall.

Thankfully, I had backup: at 10am I went over to Future Shop, just across the parking lot, to escape traffic noise and warm myself up a bit. Mistake number 2: I found a few things on sale I had been looking for, including Season 4 of Stargate: Atlantis. Of course, it wasn't that easy... pulling out my shiny rarely-used Future Shop card to take advantage of 90-days no payments, I was flummoxed when it was declined. Three phone calls and twenty patient minutes later, their customer service rep told me that my address had been recorded incorrectly when I called in February, causing some promotional mail to be returned and making the account go into suspension - despite continued payments on my Xmas 2007 TV purchase and several calls since then to the same line about said payments, each time confirming my new address! *sigh* Suffice to say, I was about as impressed as when I usually call Telus, who also have yet to manage to get things right two calls in a row. When I told the cashier that, we both shared a laugh, as Telus' customer service is a running joke in B.C. - just like the weather, it is a great conversational starter out here, much like the old "So how about those Jays?" back in the nineties.

After straightening that out, I went across the road to Serious Coffee for their version of a chai tea, relaxing inside a corner window with a great view of the parking lot and Milestone's, which is advertising their "Celebrate Date Night every Wednesday, 2 dine for $50.00" ... not so good a deal. Sadly, the Serious Coffee free internet and my laptop decided to disagree on how to shake hands, so I spent the time instead writing up some further notes on my NWN project, and detailing my morning in this day's entry - amazing how much you can write about a few hour's travails, for good and bad.

May 9 - Failure?

Overall, a pleasant day at work: the open-concept design of the branch means I spend a good deal of my time seated in the back, instead of standing at the counter. Not much change in that from the Fort St location, really, but the slower store means I can spend more time sitting down at a stretch. Which is good, as I have a lot of paperwork and numbers to work through each day... the lot of managers everywhere, I suppose.

While surfing in the evening, I came across a curious phrase: "Failed at life." This reminded me somewhat of failing saving throw rolls in gaming, so I looked a little further into it, and found not too few entries on the subject, though what message FailedAtLife.com is trying to convey is... questionable.

I spent the few hours before midnight browsing through thousands of family photos, looking for just the right ones to finish off my Mother's Day project. Luckily, I found a few misplaced directories that contained the vacation photos I was looking for and so was able to complete the project just shy of 1am. Whew!

May 10 - Mama's Day Dazzling

With the addition of the much better photos found last night, my Mother's Day gift was in far better shape this morning than earlier in the week. I presented the slideshow to my parents just after breakfast, using the USB key function of my LG TV - popped in the USB stick, selected Slideshow from the menu, keyed up the background music( Enya, of course )and ran it. My mom really enjoyed it, as I had captioned the photos, and my dad had tears in his eyes by the end - he's an old softie, really.

Did a few more hours of yardwork today, which seems to be becoming a Sunday Thing. The Yardworks manual mower does a nice job, though it still doesn't get the more flexible crabgrass, which gives the lawn a stubbly look soon fixed by the vicious application of a weed whacker. Take that, crabby!

I tried to get a new tech toy... er, necessary bit of video hardware to work, but with no success. The Dazzle Video Creator Plus was in the clearance bin at the local Future Schlock, for quite the discount - that should have been my first warning. When I got it home, I discovered why: the install DVD was missing. Not one to miss an opportunity, I managed to locate and install the Vista64 drivers for it, to at least get it working. Which is when I discovered that the drivers made it work, but the hardware choked on any combined video/audio signal. Despite installing three different video capture programs, the Dazzle could not provide a stable, steady signal and managed to turn any audio captured into an ear-searing screech like a dog whistle - not good. So back to the store it goes on Monday, darn it... and I still cannot get my old ATI All-in-Wonder 9800 Pro to work capturing video again. Too outdated... though glowing, all the reviews on ATI's site are from 2003.


It's well into the afternoon now here on the 11th... time to work on other things. Like figuring out how to be in Niagara for August 2nd this year... Toods!

DVD's, Dinner and Decisions

I'd ask Thought Police to actually read the blog entire, before commenting, as it only shows them to be foolish by leaving comments that ignore the blog's content.. but why bother? I'll bet they just skim, and don't actually read - keywording at work, folks. Hey, my first intro-comment link! Whoop.


Dec 15 - Scams

Low energy...

Turns out the phone calls I have been getting are from an 'Imperial Cruise Lines' ... important to note the name, as they are NOT the same company as 'Imperial Cruise LINE' - the distinction will be important later. Seems that this less-than-reputable bunch( nee scammers )use autodialers to call numbers and so determine the times of day when people there pick up. They then pass that info on to call center staff to peruse, based on data from their 'automated survey' call, which basically tells them if the mark is likely to have money to spend( nee be bilked of )on a vacation cruise. Apparently lots of people have been getting these types of calls, which often result in large sums vanishing from one's credit cards, if you are foolish enough to give such info away. Given that these scammers are taking full advantage of internet-based IP phones, which are difficult to trace and have no CallerID, it makes the National Do Not Call Lists rather impotent. Law enforcement is slow to follow up on complaints, which then means that the numbers that DO show up are already out of service a few weeks later. Reading some of the information that former employees talk about is eye-opening as well, and makes me wonder HOW this kind of company can stay in business legally? The world is not what it once was.

I watched Transformers in the evening, which was in the now-defunct HD-DVD format. Say what you will, I stick by my guns that it IS the better format - Blu-Ray has far fewer features, but had the backing of all the major studios, likely because it was cheaper to produce. Ah well. Transformers looked amazing on the HDTV, as the detail of the robots was mind-boggling. Too bad the video game stank... they should take a page from Good Old Games, which is a company dedicated to bringing the best of the older video games into today's age, making them run under Vista and the like. Oddworld!!

Dec 16 - Concepts and Movies

With the expression "Work is good for what ails ya" in mind, I set out today, my second day off, to make myself feel a little better... by organizing my place. I went through all my books, papers and sundry stuff to comb out all that which was no longer relevant to my life, which was surprisingly little. The papers took the longest, as old bills and other whatnot had to be examined to see if they were still worth keeping - the papers, not the bills. I progressed steadily through the day, cleaning, dusting, moving, tossing and the rest, until by dinnertime I was satisfied - my place finally looked like I wanted it to. All the extra was tossed or tucked away, I'd found a few things I thought lost, and in general I liked the neatness... the old saw of 'settled surroundings, settled mind' was definitely at work here.

I Stumbled across a website that is a mecca for people posting concept art; one fellow actually had his art go from concept to full-sized spaceship, built for a theme park in Germany, in only three months! Sing the praises!

Speaking of concepts, while waiting for Watchmen to come out, I came across a trailer for X-Men: Origins - Wolverine, with Hugh Jackman reprising his successful clawful role as the badass mutant. Nice that Wolvey keeps gaining popularity as the years go by.

I finished off the evening watching Iron Man, which was a great comic book movie. All the elements were there: cool superhero suit, lots of action, and even a redheaded Gwyneth Paltrow as Pepper Potts, assistant to Robert Downey Jr's Tony Stark. I've always liked Iron Man, though regrettably I've not kept any of the few issues I had from years ago. Apparently the newer issues have incredible writing in them, so I'll have to try and scout eBay for a few issues in the new year. Cool suit, did I mention that?

Dec 17 - What is that white stuff?

It snowed all day today, which in itself is nothing I am not used to from decades in Niagara. However, there is not even a tenth as snow removal or salting equipment here in Victoria, due to the much milder temperatures. Which means that when it keeps on snowing with low temperatures, things literally pile up faster than can be dealt with.

Tonight was a case in point. After I finished work in a flurry( hah! )of activity, I raced to the nearby bus stop, thinking I was a few minutes early for the scheduled bus. So I waited confidently, snugly tucked into my winter gear. And waited. And waited. After a half-hour, I was rather put out, moreso as I had spotted a bus in the far distance pulled over with its hazard lights on. After trying to call the bus schedule number futilely, it being busy constantly, I trekked over to the bus in the distance. The driver told me that due to the slippery roads, ALL transit buses had been told to wait until the roads were re-evaluated and the salters/sanders had had a chance to get around the main routes. So he took my ticket, gave me a transfer slip and I waited with a few others another ten minutes until we were finally given the go-ahead to proceed. I then waited with a large crowd downtown in the main foyer to Chapters, keeping warm for another hour almost until the bus I needed straggled in. Annoyingly, the driver told everyone that by that point, the ride was free due to the delay... but I had already paid on the other bus. Ah well, at least it got me most of the way home... albeit two hours late. Which was about the average wait for a cab that night, due to the virtual shutdown of transit. Thanks, snowfall.

Dec 18 - Bacon and Wall-E

A little late now to order in time for Christmas, but as a companion to my earlier blog entry I present: bacon ornaments! That's right... now you can hang your fave food on your tree for the holidays! And, in case you didn't already know about it, ILoveBacon.com is up and running for all your bacon needs!

Speaking of greasy, I made it home from work in the usual half hour, as the buses were running on time today, for a wonder. Seems it just takes them a day to get used to snowfall, which according to the locals has not been this heavy since the Blizzard of 1996, the year when Victoria held the record for all of Canada for the most snow accumulation in 24 hours... ouch. Not as much snow as the White Death, when Niagara and Western New York State got buried in snow in 1977. The sledding was good that year. Shades of The Day After Tomorrow, really, but without the bad acting. Or the wolves.

I headed over to my neighbour's place, in the next apartment on the same floor, for dinner and a movie. This was the first movie night we'd had since springtime earlier in the year, so I was excited... my social calendar here in Victoria has had few outings of this type at all, to my regret. We watched Wall-E, the Pixar CG-animated movie... it was fantastic! The graphics, as expected, were top-notch, and I was impressed that the producers did not try to go for a 'true-human' look as Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within did( mostly successfully )back in 2001. What impressed me the most though was the personality that the animators managed to imbue into the robotic characters, mainly done without dialogue. Watching their antics on the screen, I was reminded of the silent pictures of the early film era, where gesture, expression and body language had to convey the totality of expression in the absence of words. Charlie Chaplin, we miss you.

Dec 19 - Fuzzy Friday

Listening to the radio at work always helps the day go faster, or at least not suck as much. The station I have tuned in here, 100.3 'The Q' seems tailor-made to my tastes: lots of oldies, classic rock and the odd indie song tossed in, without any rap, dance, techno, metal or other related... stuff. I am almost always pleased with their selections, even the esoteric ones I've never heard of - rare is the time when I flick off the radio in the back when I can't stand the choice of song. So that's a good thing here.

After a long day, I was feeling rather woozy - dizzy even, at points. I've been taking digestive enzymes on my doctor's recommendation, to see if they might assist with bringing my plumbing back to normal... but no results as yet. So, I packed my bags and spent the night visiting my parents, who put me up in their spare room. I slept very well, and our cat Tristan was delighted to see me for such a long stretch, so much so that he barely left my side all evening. I didn't eat much, as usual, apart from a slice of pizza and a buttered bun - I have been using liquid meal replacements at work for the last few weeks, as they avoid the nausea that has inevitably followed eating solid food. That cannot continue forever though, as I need to find the reason for this problem and not just continue to treat the symptoms.

Dec 20 - Decision

I woke up to the toot of a train horn somewhat after seven AM, just one of the lovely things that living in Esquimalt forces you to get used to. At least the stench of diesel over the entire Inner Harbour is much less on the weekend, as there are fewer commuter flights leaving. Also, this is the off-season for tour buses, who show up three or four at a time during the summer to loudly proclaim over the views.

But, enough about that. I was still feeling burned out, as I have been for the last many weeks, due to whatever is causing my illness. Part of the symptoms is that I do not feel hunger, even after not eating for 12 hours or longer - I just don't. So I have to remind myself to eat, and watch that I don't eat too much at once... I've taken to having four or five smaller meals a day, as that seems to work around the nausea I get an hour after a regular-sized meal. Taking digestive enzymes helps, and I am still able to function fairly normally, despite a few dizzy or nauseous episodes a day, which only happen after a meal... for the most part. So that's only three times a day, really, when you think about it. Every day.

Which is why today I had to make a choice: to continue on my own, or make plans for my near future.

Plans, you say? Yes. I have to consider that I will not quickly figure out what is going on internally with my plumbing, nor that my doctor will find a simple solution - he hasn't yet, and I am going to be getting a few more specialist's opinions in the new year. So with that in mind, I have decided to hedge my bets in case I am unable to continue working or functioning on my own in the coming year.

Discussing things with my parents for the last few months, we have co-ordinated our searches for an alternate residence, and today we went to see a house in Langford that hit all the checkboxes. It is about a fifteen minute drive from Victoria, on a good day, is located on a lake with a view, close to many amenities and has plenty of room for everyone and our 'stuff' too.

We loved it, and immediately sent off an email to the owner that we would take it.

Which meant that I also contacted my own landlord and gave notice today, which broke my heart... because I love my current apartment. I've rhapsodized about it many times in my blog, so let me just say this: as I look around while composing today's entry, I am again struck by how comfortable and perfectly suited this place is to me, in so many ways: the size, the location, the neighbours, the way the sun lights the whole place all day long... that I can write in peace here, with my independence and all that I need at hand. It is everything I wanted in a place of my own.

Now I have to leave it, by my own choice albeit forced by circumstance. Which means that I will be moved out of this location by Feb 1st, 2009. Bitter is that taste, to have found a place that is all that you wanted and be forced to leave it by your body's betrayal. Bitter, bitter a taste indeed.

Dec 21 - Sunday Slush

The splash effect of slush on semi-cleared roads should not be understated, especially where temperatures have not solidly frozen roadside accumulations. I watched several people eat flying slush as cars zoomed past on the somewhat cleared main roads today, waiting for the bus on Fairfield Rd. I passed quite a few folks out on their Sunday morning to clear their walks; there must have been easily a dozen people flailing away with shovels, not to mention those who had already cleared their walks and the sidewalks in front of their homes too. I am sure that many an enterprising youngster will make a good few dollars today with no more than a sturdy shovel and a penchant for ringing doorbells all day.

Which made for a slow day at work. I've brought in a humidifier, as the air here hovers around 35%( or less )humidity, which is uncomfortable to work in. Cracked skin on one's hands and the occasional nosebleed are things I try to avoid adding to my list of winter enjoyments, so the added moisture, although not substantial, helps to keep these minor scourges at bay during my work day. Not to mention that the lobby is at least 15-20 degrees cooler than the heavy-glass-insulated teller area, so whenever the heating system comes on, cold air is displaced from the lobby and blasts into the teller zone... can you say, "My hands are frozen?" I knew that you could. Now thaw 'em out and count change.

I watched the DVD extras for Iron Man after getting home from work - amazingly easy on a Sunday night, as the bus goes directly from my branch to the stop outside my front door. Maybe a hundred steps total from work to home... and I won't be doing that ever again, in little more than a month. Though I will likely still be working every Sunday... I'm tempted to get religion, just for the day off.

Ahem. DVD extras... there are a LOT of them with Iron Man, all top-notch and informative. Must be the hundreds of geeks involved in the creative process... they know what sorts of things they would like to see on these things. Great gobs of CGI graphics, diagrams and interviews - when I was finished watching I felt like I had been on the crew for most of the production. I'll have to pick this one up.


And on to the Comments... if any. Will there be spiders?