Operations, Overhaul and Observation

I'm off ALL week, just at home recuperating. Feel free to call... that's why I've kept my local 935 Niagara number. :-)

May 25 - Cutaway Coolness

I found a great interview with one of my more favourite actors, Greg Grunberg of Heroes and Alias fame. While he's no Brando, I find his likable everyman personality very fresh in today's overly media-savvy acting world, and it is evidenced in the online interview. Still, cool is as cool does, and that guy's cool.

A week today, the second season of Tank Overhaul starts on The History Channel, which I enjoyed watching last year. When I was younger, I loved cutaway-style drawings of any kind of vehicle, especially military or of course, SciFi. One of these hard-to-find posters has been hanging on my wall for over a decade now, taking pride of place. I kind of like this one too... and this site has a ton of blueprints, some of which I still own. I even drew a cutaway of the Jupiter2 from Lost in Space way back in the day, but this version is the one I wish I'd been able to draw.

One of my projects this coming vacation week is to scan in some of the drawings I've saved from my youth, preserving them digitally in case something should happen to the originals. Along with scanning in some family photos, plus other things... I may even get to some writing, if I feel up to it. Neil Gaiman shared some great insight on the writing process in this blog entry recently, similar to the Four Myths of Writing.

May 26 - Wedding Magazines?

I used to collect certain magazines years ago( no, not those kind! )but things tapered off once the internet really got going: more timely information, fewer ads and no searching for articles among dozens of look-alike back issues. The modern magazine is changing too: more and more and going online, releasing themselves in a variety of formats, most often using the ubiquitous PDF format. One such mag is Up!Magazine, whose May issue has a section on Niagara - interesting, as it portrays the area from a new perspective that you don't get as a resident. It is a large-ish download though, so wait for the link to load fully.

Things are on track for my upcoming visit to Niagara in early August for Shawna & Nigel's wedding - I officially have the time booked off work, I have a place to snooze and the tickets are in the works. Now all I have to do is wait for my final ticket costs and plan on details like a car, meals and What To Do while I am there. Though I have a feeling that this time, like last time, is going to be very, very busy!

May 27 - Squirrel Trailers

These days, anyone with some talent and time can create the most amazing things - many of them posted to YouTube. Fan trailers have proven especially popular for upcoming films, a trend started back in 1998 when someone edited together scenes from Braveheart and previous Star Wars films, popped in some lightsabers and presto: an instant 'trailer' for the upcoming Phantom Menace film. Things have come a long, long way since, as evidenced by this fantastic fan-made trailer for Green Lantern, which features Nathan Filion of Firefly fame and fan fanaticism frolicking in fine form fighting foes. Fhew!

Oh, for some few millions in cash just laying around, waiting to be spent: for those of you with such funds, then you may be thrilled to learn that the house from Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Cameron Frye's home, is up for sale. The famous glass-and-steel garage that housed Cameron's father's Ferrari before it was launched in reverse out the window can be yours for less than $2.5 million USD.

And I wonder if this squirrel was thinking 'Bacon!' when it went to all that trouble? Maybe he got it confused with Squirrel Bacon...

May 28 - The Night Before

While I am not a fan, I do find The Day After Tomorrow a re-watchable film - the SFX are decent, as is the acting, and the premise is plausible enough for a film, if not real life. It IS entertainment, after all. There was a recent listing on io9.com of the Top 10 Eco-Catastrophes from early SF, which I found enlightening, being the fan of apocalyptic stories that I am. Emptyworld.com is a cool place to go for All Things Apocalyptic, though it hasn't been updated in 2 years... perhaps a sign that it too, has fallen victim to the GEC - maybe you'd best get a copy of Apocalypse How, now.

In case there is a disaster, a new program from Microsoft may save your hide - it surprised me to learn about it too. Called VINE, it is based on the premised that in an emergency, your message HAS to get through. By text, email, phone call or other means, it would allow people to have vital information communicated to friends, colleagues and family members in case of disaster - when the lines are busy or down, VINE may prove its worth and save some lives. Much as Google Earth and Craigslist did for victims of Hurricane Katrina three years ago.

I spent a good portion of the later hours of the evening writing down some important things, as I had been doing for the last few months. As most of you will already know, I like being prepared, so I prepped notes to various people in case the worst happened. Not that I expected such, but then I never expected to need this surgery in the first place... and I hate loose ends, in both my stories and in real life. How many of you out there reading this have life insurance? What about a will? Letters to family and friends? Any of that recently updated with changes in your life?

May 29 - Operation Day

Up and out the day early today - I had to be at the Sannich Peninsula Hospital for a 9am check-in before my operation. The hospital was a lovely low-slung affair in a country setting: green fields, trees and sunshine surrounded the place and were visible from most every room in the place. It was a bit confusing at the main entrance though; a lack of signage made getting around confusing until we found a nurse to point the way. After that, it was easy - who needs signs, anyway?

Prep for the operation was practically painless too. The nurse who put in my IV line had been doing it for 30 years, and it showed in the fact I didn't feel a thing as she plunked in the needle. I passed the time before the operation talking with a fellow by the name of Gabe in the next bed, who was in for the same gall bladder removal operation, referred to as Laparoscopic surgey or a cholecystectomy. There is an informative 3D CGI video about the procedure here... which I found after the surgery, naturally.

I was surprisingly relaxed about the whole thing, right up to being wheeled into the surgical area. The doctors and nurses were all very cheerful and talkative as I lay on the gurney in the waiting room and outside the surgical area, and again as I was lifted onto the operating table. A few short sentences exchanged with the anesthetist and I was out - I woke up after 1pm in the recovery room with a store throat from the breathing tube plus( obviously )a sore stomach.

From there, I dozed on and off until about 3pm, when I felt clear-headed enough and strong enough to get dressed and get myself discharged. I must admit I felt better than Gabe, who was still woozy in the bed next to me but conscious enough to wish me a speedy recovery, which I returned right back at him. Apparently his wife was in hospital the same day for some complicated oral surgery, so they would both need rides home. I wobbled out to the car and endured the rough(-er)roads until we made it to the smooth highway. We were quickly home and I was settled onto the couch, where I again dozed on and off until dinner, when some soup brought me back some energy. T'bed early, with no pain to speak of, just discomfort like I'd over-exercised my stomach.

May 30 - Recovery Day One

Today went as well as I thought, considering I only managed about 4-5 hours of sleep at a 45-degree angle favouring my stomach. I always know when I have had enough sleep: I come awake straight away, not groggy as when one is awakened BY an alarm clock. With the sun coming up earlier around 6am, the rising light tends to pull me out of bed against my will. The surgery has left me with 4 bandages on my stomach covering the small incisions, and my whole belly feels... tight. Like the feeling you get when you've eaten too much, but without the accompanying bloated pressure - odd. I have to be careful not to move using my abdominal muscles, so sitting up is a measure of leverage using my arms and a cane - tricky but manageable.

Being housebound, I had a fun time just relaxing - the weather here has been perfect so far. Sunny, with a cooling breeze blowing off the lake to the north has made the deck out back the perfect place to recuperate. I've also enjoyed looking at tech alternatives to home care: this photo gallery of robotic helpers was fascinating, as all of them are currently available on today's market. Reminds me a bit of the Omnibot2000 robot from Hasbro from the 80's, which was really just a glorified remote control toy... but I really, really wanted one anyway. Perhaps an early sign of geekdom, for some.

Last Saturday I saw the new Star Trek film at a matinee, but this week there was no way I was going anywhere today. I did run across this interesting piece with some movie concept art for the new Trek film though - some really cool images there. Sadly, there are none of Uhura or Orion dancing girls.

May 31 - Recovery Day Two

I spent a good few hours on the deck again today, where it was quite sunny and warm - so much so that I had to find some shade fairly soon or overheat. A few hours went by rather peacefully reading and typing on the laptop before I had to retreat inside - the park next door struck again with some loud people arriving to fish. I didn't expect they caught anything; they yammered on and on at full volume about the most inane things imaginable, though I had to give them credit for not being vulgar. They were well-practiced at speaking every thought in their heads though... what happened to a quiet Sunday afternoon fishing?

Some Xbox360 time today was spent on Civilization: Revolutions, where I again learned the old video game mantra: Save Early, Save Often. Also, if you've played the game for a while, it may help you to browse through a strategy guide or two to see if there may be things you've missed discovering. Myself, I prefer to save looking at walkthroughs until the very last, when you've hit a wall in a game and it's either shelve it or solve it. Which doesn't often happen in shooter-style games like COD4 or the very popular Grand Theft Auto series - I have no intention of playing the latter, as neither gang violence nor urban speed racing appeal to me.

In the evening, I watched Hero Ships on The History Channel, profiling the battleship New Jersey. I must confess, I've always loved battleships, ever since I first saw them on television - I think that is why I also loved Star Blazers, which featured the Space Battleship Yamato. A recent web-only monthly series is now available online free from the StarBlazers.com website, and captures a good deal of the initial excitement I felt when I saw the original on TV as a kid.


Thanks for everyone for their well-wishes!! Sleep is a little easier now that I can lay flatter for longer periods, though I still seem to be overheating somewhat

Nostalgia, NYT and Nimoy

Waiting a week to watch my writing? Well, wejoice - wead on! ( I had to stretch there... )

May 18 - Cutbacks

With things being less than rosy globally, everyone is looking to cut back and conserve resources. For the last few years I have done what I can to save myself money, including using CFL lights( sparingly too ), cutting back on frills like cable TV, not having a car... these and many other things have reduced some, but by no means all, of my controllable costs.

What about residences? To be sure, I enjoyed living on my own, but right now it makes more sense to cut expenses by sharing living space... in this case, with my parents. I am still thinking about my own place, but I still run into space issues... though a Tumbleweed home does have a certain appeal. I just wonder where I would put everything that doesn't fit into it and where I might do some office work; maybe in one of these?

After looking over my bookshelf last weekend, I pulled out a magnificent book I remember getting when I was but a small lad of five years: The Trigan Empire. It is a collection of illustrated scifi stories by the late Don Lawrence, whom Neil Gaiman himself has praised. I vividly remember reading it for the first time, as the watercolour art was brilliant and the stories epic, containing elements from many historical cultures that I also began to appreciate as I grew up. Apparently a new publisher is going to reprint the entire comic series ... at the eye-popping cost of nearly $1200.00 USD a pop. Ouch... my nostalgia just burst, but check out the artwork there anyway.

May 19 - Brief thoughts

Sometimes, you get nostalgic... then you come across other people doing the same, and it becomes a shared experience. Growing up when I did, in the 70's and 80's, was apparently The Perfect Geek Age according to the author. He makes quite a few good points too, though thankfully leaves off any mention of Cabbage Patch Kids... or Transformers.

That could explain why I really, really have to have one of these when they come out. No, seriously.

I'm always on the lookout for good advice on writing( and my other interests too )so this article about selling SciFi to publishers was right up my alley. Good ideas are plentiful... salable ideads, not so much.

May 20 - Give credit when credit is...

Earlier this month, there was an article published in the NY Times about credit card companies that was an eye-opener. You may have noticed in the last few years that your card statements now have 'categories' where your purchases are listed by type: service, merchandise, auto repairs etc. What you may not know is that your card company is using this purchase data to better determine how much of a risk you are to them. That's right: what you buy and where you buy it is being assessed against your future credit by most companies today. With the economic crisis costing card companies billions( estimated to be nearly 400 billion USD$ in the next 5 years )they are focusing on reducing their risks... as well as recovering some of their losses, which the NYT article also talks about. Debt collectors are now focusing on 'bonding' with the people they call, all part of new psychological models designed to get more money out of debtors than simple pressure tactics of years gone by. Scary, scary stuff - sign up for free at the Times and read the article, then look over your shoulder...

May 21 - Upcoming

Is anyone else excited about the upcoming Ghostbusters video game? Have you seen the latest trailer? Are you excited now?

By know I'll bet you know I really like video games... and free games are even better. How could you not want to play one called Medieval Rampage?

Hungry after all that carnage? Do you like brownies? How about bacon? What if you combined the two? You get this!

I've been watching some episodes of Stargate: Atlantis Season 4 this week, and I really have to give kudos to their production values. Each episode so far has had a commentary by the writer and the director, sometimes a few of the actors as well. They generally stay on topic too: instead of joking around like a lot of commentaries seem to degenerate into quickly, these folks stay on track to offer insight on the creative process for each episode. Plus, the things area a pleasure to watch; the most recent entitled "Be All My Sins Remembered" was fantastic, and not just for the massive SFX budget that went into the space combat scenes.

May 22 - Friday

Today was opening day for Terminator: Salvation... and apparently it wasn't as good a movie opening as had been hoped. Quite a few people have not-so-nice things to say about the movie too. Maybe they should have brought in some outside consultants? After all, this is a war movie... though I don't think they should have asked these guys for advice.

I've been listening to the radio more and more at work, a habit I got into while working at the Fort St branch. Which is odd, as I haven't had a home stereo for what seems like forever - something that more people might have in common with me in this, the Age of the iPod and iTunes. Still, when I do want to listen to the radio, I can easily do so... on the internet. I just surf over to 98.5's java site and bingo: tunes over the 'net - have to love technology these days.

May 23 - Movie time!

The area I now live in, Langford, is becoming more and more familiar to me... and I am coming to appreciate all the things I can do here, as well as my proximity to quite a few things. I've already mentioned I am but a few minutes cycle from Goldstream National Park, as well as being close to the Galloping Goose Trail. What I haven't mentioned yet is that I am ten minutes by cycle from the Caprice Theatre, the closest I think I've ever been to a movie theatre since I lived a little north of the Pen Centre during my university years. In the last decade I've seen fewer and fewer movies at the theatre, for various reasons: sharing space with noisy, ignorant people, paying high ticket prices, not to mention the incredibly inflated cost of food and drink while there.

Incredibly, despite all those reasons, I decided to see the new Star Trek down at the Caprice today in a matinee. For a mere $4.25, I got myself a ticket and settled into the seat surrounded by a decent-sized crowd with a fair number of children being children. I had ignored the 'temptation' of buying a drink & popcorn combo... for almost twice the price of the ticket - no thanks. Once the movie began, everyone settled down and I was relieved to see the kids were fairly focused on the film. I may end up doing this on a regular basis: it's cheap, close to home and... well, those two things are big on my current budget list, anyway.

So how was the new Star Trek? I give it a 10/10... for the visual effects. Story? 5/10... sorry, but there were parts where I scratched my head about the choices that J.J. Abrams made. Given the fact that time travel is something that has always been a part of Trek, I thought they could do a better job on the story and put less lens flare in the effects budget. It was a non-stop action ride, full of phasers, big blasts, spaceships and pretty people... but I really hope they suck it up for the next installment, as it probably won't have Leonard Nimoy in it. Spock with false teeth makes my own teeth ache... sadly.

May 24 - Like a cottage by the lake...

Today was another Outside Day, though I didn't end up mowing the lawn. Instead, a few hours of garden work( I like rocks )was followed by intermittent deck time, as well as some more serious snoozes. I wasn't so foolish as to fall asleep in the sun though; make that mistake once and you never will again. Thankfully, the screaming that being near large bodies of water induces in children was fairly tame today, easily blocked by a pair of earplugs while on the back deck. Imagining a Langford Lake Ogopogo snacking also helped...

Some caution is in order for area gardeners here: make sure the front of the house is locked when you're out the back, or things may go missing. Yikes!

The movie Cube was on Space tonight, a film from 1998 I had not heard of before. It has David Hewlett and Nicole DeBoer in it, part of a small group trying to escape from a massive tech maze full of traps. It was obviously made on a small budget; you can see the set flexing whenever the actors lean a little too hard on it... but as costs go, it works very well as you can just change the lighting colour over and over and over. Not to mention shooting from different angles... over and over and over. DeBoer... she looks good with glasses, or without!

I did end the day with a headache though, which I cannot do much about - in preparation for my upcoming operation on the 29th, I cannot take most headache meds as they thin the blood. Which, right now, is something that I understand but really, really wish I could change - the Tylenol has worked somewhat, but I have a feeling the lovely weather( and accompanying high pressure )is going to give me an interesting week.


That's all for this week - more next week, after my successful operation.

Tickets, Timing and Terminators

What's this? An update early on Sunday night? That's what you get with a day off and a head full of things to say...

May 11 - Opportunity Missed

today did not start out so well. I was up very early in order to head into the city for an opportunity I've been thinking about for a while. I left the house at a quarter after seven and turned onto the highway... only to find a traffic jam stretching as far as the eye could see to the south. Seeing as I had an 8 AM appointment this was not a good thing, so I made good use of my local knowledge and took the first side road I could off the parking lot that had formerly been a highway. This was the first time I had ever seen traffic backed up as far as that highway exit, or as early as that in the morning. Through a minor miracle, I managed to arrive at my appointment exactly on time, only to be told that the group had already been taken inside and there is nothing to be done. Needless to say, I was devastated, but by this point in my life I have learned to take the big sucker-punches in stride, along with the little things we shouldn't worry about.

After spending a shaky half-hour in a nearby Starbuck's calming myself over a chai tea, I headed home for the rest of my day off... cursing the clear open lanes of the highway not even 2 hours gone as I traveled in the opposite direction homewards. The rest of the day was a wash, as I distracted myself from my disappointment by working on my NWN project, among other things. I soaked my cares away in the hottub twice in the evening, and went to bed early to dreams I cannot recall.

May 12 - Community Creation

I'm considering installing a method to track the various origins of visitors to my blog, which have more than tripled in number since I installed Google's AdSense last month. C|Net, that wonderful old standby of the internet, recently published a list of a dozen or so candidates, which I am reviewing right now. If anyone out there has actually used one of these programs, or can recommend another one to me, please do so - I'd really like to know where all the extra visitors are coming from!

Online communities are great, and are extensions of the old play-by-mail / penpal snail-mail groups that have existed for decades, long before BBS's and the internet came along. One such neat place is SciFi-Meshes.com, where thousands of dedicated souls design spaceships. Almost every ship that has ever existed in SciFi, be it film, book or other media, has a mesh somewhere on this site, including quite a few from my own beloved Babylon 5 series. As well as this one - a ship from one of my favourite books when I was a kid, called Spacecraft 2000-2100 AD, which had tons of cool-looking futuristic spaceships... combat ships, mostly, which were even cooler. As the author on the mesh site says, the book was very influential, with games like Homeworld( also one of my fave video games ever )and many other projects showing inspiration sourced in this book. There is even a history of the book series here, which I was fascinated to find - I learned that there were more books beyond the one I had managed to get!

Similarly, people can band together for various projects from across the globe, sometimes for profit. GetAFreelancer.com is such a place, where professionals( and amateurs too )from every country can buy or sell their skills to various projects covering almost every topic you can think of. My own NWN project is a tiny fish by comparison, but the group I am working with are all doing it for free, from our love of the game and our bond as gaming comrades... plus a little bit of performance ego too, I will bet.

May 13 - Write, Write, Write!

A friend told me today about an amazing story that he had just read called "The Old House Under the Snow" by author Rhys Huges, whose website you can check out to see his massive story list. He plans to write at least 1000 stories, and is up to 483 so far, most of which are published or in the stages of being so - nice!

There is also a nice little article about the Four Myths of writing that i found this week. While not an in-depth commentary on the craft, it does touch on four of the most common misconceptions about the writing life. I also loved a short piece called Freelance Writing Tips, which gives some excellent advice for those who are new to the field - in my case, still totally untried... so far. I think I will be browsing more often over at FreelanceFactor.com, which as you may guess is home for a large community of freelance writers - my kind of folk, in lieu of hanging around with published authors and garnering useful advice. An especially gritty site with insight( heh )on becoming an author is... Ten blindingly obvious things I've learned in my first year as an author at FreelanceWritingTips.com, another great site.

I will also be checking out the Top 10 Blogs on Writing, whose 2008 listing you can find here - tons of great info there, which I am slowly perusing for inspiration and direction in taking my own writing career out of the Stalled Bin. I would love to pursue voice acting as well, but for now I think writing is the better ticket in a down economy... from my research, voice acting is not for the faint of heart, though Steve Saylor has bravely ventured forth into that field. Mind you, he has a LOT more experience than I with media of most types, having spent time on Call for Help among other shows and generally being a very talented guy. I wish him well - make sure you take a look at his work over at The Voice-Over Chronicles.

May 14 - Wild Cards in the works

Me and my post-apocalyptic junkie-ism: I've just discovered a new show coming to TV called Day One, from the creator of Heroes. The show is set in California, and follows the adventures of a group of apartment residents who are trying to find out what happened to cause the cataclysm that ended their world. There is a preview of the action over at io9.com, which is a good place to peruse for SciFi news and other related media tidbits.

Some more SciFi goodness this week: one of my favourite shared-world series is getting a facelift. The Wild Cards universe is set in an alternate timeline starting back in the Fifties, when an alien virus causes millions of humans on earth to... change. Most die, some are horribly mutated and a very few develop super powers - the mutated are called Jokers, the supers called Aces... you can extrapolate the rest from there. I just love the fact that these stories are set in the modern age, and deal with topics and issues relevant to each decade that the stories cover. Numerous top-notch writers have contributed to the series, which was started in 1987 and I happily manage to have every single book of, despite most being long out of print and hard to find. The series creator / editor George R.R. Martin of Song of Ice and Fire fame talks about the relaunch here - I can hardly wait!

After work I came home... and worked some more, outside. The landlord had delivered a load of topsoil as promised, and I spent a happy few hours getting good exercise shovelling it all onto the front lawn. Yes, that's right: the lawn. When this place was hooked up to the municipal sewer system a few years ago, they ran the pipe under the front lawn... leaving a large speedbump most of the way across it, despite some settling. Not being one who enjoys looking out on( or cutting )a patchy, ugly lawn, I was more than happy to provide muscle power if the landlord would provide the fill. She's great, and has loved the fact that we as tenants are willing to improve the place in various ways to make it more enjoyable to live in. Very different from living in a condo or apartment - I like the exercise, the feeling that I am doing something to make my living space more comfortable, and that I am outside enjoying the lovely climate.

May 15 - Plane Ticket News!

I received some AMAZING news today, from a phone call after work. A good friend of mine, whom I have known most of my life( and will remain nameless until I get his OK to mention his generosity here )has offered to use his Airmiles to get me a ticket back to Niagara this summer, in time for Shawna & Nigel's wedding. I was floored - such generosity is so rare, especially since I have not said much at ALL along the lines of trying to afford the plane ticket on my own... I had a silly grin on my face for the rest of the night, and I still smile like a fool now whenever I think about it - things like that make me marvel again at my luck in having such fantastic people to call friends, and so darn many of them too. Makes it all the more important to live up to their examples!

For those of you who own DVR's( digital video recorders ), you may already be familiar with the one thing that can drive you crazy by owning one: running out of space. Much like computer hard drives, you may think that you have a ton of room, but all too soon though saved shows begin crowding each other and you have to decide which ones go and which ones stay. Though this is not as hard a choice in the age of DVDs, sometimes you just don't want to spend the money on buying a TV series or movie.

Happily, there is now a solution: cousins of the external hard drive, the PVR Expander has arrived. While not cheap, it means that for certain brands of PVR's, you can just plug in the external drive and breathe a sigh of relief as you can now keep far more shows... until it fills up again. unfortunately, my own PVR is not compatible with any of the current solutions on the market, which means I have been trying out various ways of recording the shows onto other media. So far, nothing has worked satisfactorily, as last week's blog entry about the Dazzle video capture device illustrates quite well. Still, it does point out that we are moving towards a point where we could choose where and how we will store our media, which more than likely means it will be on a hard drive home media server, which can be accessed by various types of devices around the house. Which also means that it won't be cheap either, at least until everybody starts wanting one like plasma TV's and netbooks.

May 16 - Invariably...

Following up on my mentioned last week about fraudulent e-mails, I bring you this week the topic of: identity fraud and theft. Again, C|net has written a great primer article on the subject, which I highly recommend everyone have a look through - knowledge is power, and protecting one's good name in economically troubled times is vitally important.

In case you hadn't heard, there's a new animated show coming out: Stoked. From the creators of 6teen and Total Drama Island, this is another flash-based animated series from incredibly talented people, including my good friend Mike Hogue who has placed a trailer for the new show on his own website - go have a look!

What really takes the cake this week though is... a cake. Not just any cake though: one made in the shape of the Millennium Falcon! This is one incredibly detailed - it looks more like a model than a cake. Too bad all that remains today are the pictures.

Work was slow today, nothing unusual there... sad to say, things do not look to be looking up anytime soon. Which makes me sad, as everything else about work has been, er, working out, of late. I am a fifteen minute bike ride from home, located in a plaza well away from any downtown weirdness, and I no longer have a glass barrier between myself and people, leading to a more relaxed attitude. Not to mention less fear of making a mistake in cash handling; the HAL 9000 cash dispenser does away with that worry, as it sits brooding like a black panther in the middle of the floor. Scary, sometimes, these machines...

Which brings me to Terminator: Salvation. Yep, it's the fourth film in the franchise, and to date I've been enjoying the Sarah Connor Chronicles TV series, though I have yet to get to the second season( there will never be a third: it was cancelled last month! No! ). Salvation looks amazing though, as it is designed as a war film - the previous films have given us a few fleeting glimpses into the future Skynet war, but the fourth installment is all about the apocalypse, baby! If it is good enough, I may put it on my Blue-Ray list... not that I have a Blue-Ray player yet, mind you, but eventually it looks like I will have to switch, market forces be damned.

May 17 - Sun_day at last!

Today was spent almost entirely outdoors from mid morning until dinnertime. It was a stunningly gorgeous day, with a clear blue sky and no wind to speak of save a gentle occasional breeze, for most of the day. I dug dirt, pulled weeds and hauled rocks around the property, focusing on the entrance drive - I will take a few pics of it to show the massive amount of work that I have done so far, mostly on my own with some help from my dad. I took breaks on and off until late afternoon, when I washed up and then spent the remainder of the beautiful day simply relaxing in my portable hammock. The lake area was serene for most of the day, even with the odd Victoria Day Weekend celebration getting a little loud here and there a few doors down.

What I wish I had was one of these - kids these days, so lucky.... all I had was a pool and a garden hose. And bugs.

And what would be a blog without bacon? Actually, it's... duck bacon. Qwack?

I spoke to Rene tonight, who caught me up on happenings in Niagara... well no, actually, we talked about most everything else but. I was most impressed by his reading lists; he manages to come up with the most interesting books, whereas I have no talent at finding anything that's not already in a list somewhere. What I should really do is compile a list of my fave authors and dig through their books at the local library - saves spending money at a time when it is tight all around. I used to visit the library a lot years ago, but as it became less convenient I stopped going... the Port Dalhousie branch was the last one I really frequented, as it was fairly close to home while I was living down that way in the late eighties. I hope it's still there!


All for now - going to go soak away my aches and head to bed, working the holiday tomorrow and all next week.

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!

Sisters, Socials and Scribing

I had such a good time resting up on Sunday that I didn't get around to finishing off the blog until tonight... plus, I was just feeling too darn tired.

April 28 - Visits

My sister arrived today from Calgary for her three-day mini vacation. we drove straight from the airport to Buchchart Gardens to see all the gardens in full bloom for the spring season. Colour was everywhere: masses of complementary and contrasting flowers were everywhere one's eye fell. Full tourist season has not hit yet, so only a fair sprinkling of local people were out taking advantage of the gorgeous weather to tour the Gardens. If I had had time, I would have walked around again to get a closer look at some sections, and to spend more time relaxing in the Japanese area too.

Late last week there was an interesting bit of news about the future of the information cyberwar: GhostNet. Apparently based in China, this was an ultra-low-profile spy network based in hundreds of computers in highly sensitive locations around the globe. It was discovered by a Canadian research lab after some lengthy sleuthing - reminds me of cyber-battles for control of millions of zombie PC's by various criminal groups around the world, seeking to gain control of such 'botnets' for their own nefarious use.

Which makes me want one of these all the more, to add to my collection!

April 29 - Social Aging

The other day I was thinking about the future, specifically about end-of-life social circles. Where do you think you will end up? Busy with family visits from many grandchildren? A full social calendar with bake sales, music rehearsals and volunteer work? Or sitting at home, working on one's memoirs? None of the above? Sitting bored in a rest home, watching TV and feeling your mind slip away a few more notches each day?

Sometimes I wonder about where I will end up, or even IF I will end up, fifty or so years from now. That's a long time, and we just don't know how medical science will change in that time. Assuming you survive the next few decades, you may find that new advances will extend your lifetime even further... hopefully the quality of life will remain high too. Some people, like Dr. Oz, are all about ensuring quality of life all the way along the line. Add in things like how the Nintendo Wii is changing the way people keep their bodies and minds active in later life, and we have serious hopes to see the human lifespan extended by decades very soon.

After work today, I went to dinner with my sister and parents at the Millstream Milestone's restaurant for their Free Date Night - for every two people in the party, one person's appetizer & dinner are free! We all met there at 4pm, right when I finished work( it's just steps away )managing to get in before the crowds arrived... when we left, there was a lineup 30 people deep. Apparently there are a lot of cheap dates out there besides myself. ;-)

April 30 - Lots!

I've added Google AdSense to the blog to see if I can scrape a few pennies from the hit counter, which surpassed 1200 hits today at 10:45pm PST - 200 hits in the last month alone. I wonder if it's because of adding AdSense, or some other reason? I will be keeping an eye on it as time goes on, especially as Google also owns DoubleClick, which I am not a fan of in any way.

Ice Ship: Project Habakkuk was on the History Channel tonight, touching on a favourite subject of mine... unusual WWII secret projects( just like last week's blog posting ). Imagine a gigantic floating island able to base hundreds of planes and house thousands of personnel... and almost the entire thing made of ice. It is like something out of science fiction - more can be found here about it all.

My sister left this morning, returning back to Calgary and lingering cold weather, with snow. It was a good week here for her: very restful and relaxing away from Alberta. I was sad to see her go, as I had not been able to spend too much time with her this week, having to work every day.

After a long day, it is wonderful to be able to soak in the outdoor hottub for a few minutes. When I was living in Port Dalhousie we had a pool and like to keep it VERY warm( ala 85F )which meant in effect we had a very large, somewhat cooler hottub to swim around in. After living in Fonthill, where the was also a hottub, I came to appreciate locating such things outside, as sitting in your basement soaking was nice but had no view. Here in Langford one can sit back in the water and look right out over the lake towards the hills to the north, steaming comfortably. Even a very windy night like tonight was comfortable, as long as you kept yourself mostly immersed - it was interesting to watch the steam coil and twist away like angry spirits in the winds that blew through the moonlit trees.

May 1 - 1.5 years in B.C.

No celebrations, but today marks 1.5 years since I left Ontario for the West. Doesn't feel like that long, but here I am... and all too soon I will stop marking the years altogether, as here I am likely to stay. At this point in my life, the solitude and quiet I have at home is enough to keep me balanced, allowing me time to work on projects I feel are important to me. Going out for a beer or to a movie just isn't in the cards anymore, especially as I have few people I can call on at a moment's notice to have a drink with( heyas Lucas! ). Moving here, especially this area in Langford, is calming in so many ways: the parkland nearby, the incredible vista of the lake in the backyard, having my own Man Cave to relax in, being only a 5 minute drive from work... all of this and so much more really takes the twist out of my spine at day's end. That's all on that subject.

In terms of time, I do love clocks as you may have guessed from some of my previous blog postings. This week, I stumbled across a really cool flash-based clock, though if you leave it running it does tend to get out of sync - really neat to look at though and it has very soothing background audio. It is very similar to the flash Industorious Clock that Lucas sent me years ago, which tells time through hand-written numbers - great stuff.

May 2 - Writing Thangz

On writing: Steve Saylor wrote( Tweeted, actually )about how much he is enjoying using Scrivener, a writer's all-in-one software masterpiece for the Mac. While I do not have a Mac myself, I have been trying out a few programs this last year( mostly free ones )to try and find one to suit me. Thanks to Steve, I now have a link page showing some new possibilities, so I will try a few more of them out. to date, the easiest has been DarkRoom, which is a clone of WriteRoom for the Mac: just a simple black background with text on it, easy on the eyes yet with all the features one needs to pop around the parts of a project. Distraction-free, in other words.

Spellchecking is a bit of a pain sometimes. For example, my install of OpenOffice doesn't seem to have the spellchecker enabled... not will it let me install a Canadian version. So I have resorted to using a nice( free! )website called Orangoo, which so far has been quick & very accurate.

All this may be in the face of massive changes in the publishing industry. The advent of blogs, the internet and eBooks is beginning to shake up the staid publishing industry in general, as this report from io9.com about SciFi publishing makes quite clear.

Still, if you have a blog you can always turn it into a book... as this person has done with their upcoming book to be released on May 12th 2009. Guess what all of her 600 blog posts were all about? Bacon, of course!

May 3 - Futurama

Though not especially warm, work outside today was comfortable in shorts and t-shirt with the added bonus of working away the winter lack of a tan. No lawn trimming this week though: instead I concentrated on the vital task of... driveway weeding. Man, things really GROW out here - the gentle almost-daily rain and warm climate means plants have a field day. I cannot count how many houses I have seen with masses of moss on their roofs, which grows wherever the tall trees let their shadows fall on a home.

in the evening I watched Bender's Big Score, the first of the Futurama direct-to-DVD releases that have followed after it was cancelled by Fox in 2003. I only found out about the DVD releases last year and picked up the first of the DVDs a few months ago at future shop on sale( of course! ). I've always been a fan the show for its wacky cast, great writing and unique visual animation style, though not nearly as big a fan as these folks are. If I could, I think I would go out next Halloween as Bender, though I would have to figure out a way to imitate the smoking cigar somehow... there are quite a few folks out there who love Bender. What's not to love?


'ta!

Time, Talking and Trade-ins

This week's blog was delayed due to family - my sister is visiting this week, and darn it if I just did not have time yesterday to finish things up. So there. :)


April 20 - Wheel of Time(-lieness)

The news back in 2007 that Robert Jordan( nee James Oliver Rigney, Jr. )had died shocked a lot of Wheel of Time fans. The massive series, which I have been following since its inception back in 1990( wow, has it been THAT long? )has had some exciting news last month: the announcement that the final book A Memory of Light will be broken up into THREE books, totalling nearly 1 million words. Finally, an end is in sight, and it looks like one that will satisfy the many WOT fans out there. Well, most of them, anyway... those who haven't become dazed and confused somewhere along the massive journey that is the WOT series.

Thankfully, legions of fans out there have managed to create concise Plot Summaries for every chapter of every book, which you can peruse in case you haven't read any of the books in recent years. Another good place is the WOT FAQ, which has sections on almost every question you can think of regarding plot or character. You can also visit the official DragonMount Forums, where quite a few ideas are posted and being chewed over on a daily basis. The best place to go for following plot threads is Encyclopaedia WOT, where a visual 'plot thread tree' at the bottom of each book chapter list shows WHICH chapter in each book touches on a particular thread. This amazing feature means you can follow a particular plot thread through EACH chapter from book to book, start to finish... which is damned handy considering the sheer size and scope of the series.

April 21 - Mucho MMO's

Those of you who peruse this blog on a regular basis( love ya folks! Stay the course! )know that I am a fan of MMORPG's... but that I do not subscribe to any. Which is odd, as subscriptions are the basis for any successful online gaming community to succeed, making money for the company releasing it. Many an MMO has fallen by the wayside over the years, while a few such as WoW have continued to remain successful - it's a numbers game, and there aren't THAT many people out there with tons of free time to kill every week playing an elf running around collecting l00t.

MMORPG.com is a good place to go to get an idea of what's already out there and what's slated to come down the pipe in the near future. It also has a ton of info about less mainstream MMO's, of which of course I love any that are free to play. The site also contains some good blogs concerning MMO's, like Vicarious Existence, which has recently looked at how hype helps sell new MMO's. One little game I may jump into is Galaxy Online, which looks to be in the style of the old Star Control series of games for the PC, with the added strategic depth of an MMO - looks cool, may stink, in other words. Ever since the days of Tradewars( which is still online in various forms adapted for the internet )there has been a deluge of space strategy games - the most recent contenders for the crown are Jumpgate: Evolution and Eve: Online... neither of which is big on actually stepping OUT of your cool spaceship to get your feet dirty. In fact, despite its popularity, Eve is NOT a game for those who enjoy space combat - it is more about corporate trading, as this great little article explains.

April 22 - Red Versus Blue... bacon?

All right, all right... I chose the losing side in the HD-DVD( red box )vs Blue-Ray( blue box )war, I admit it. While I still believe HD-DVD was the better technology, the market decided otherwise and I have to live with my decision... and my collection that cost me some fair change. Now, there comes news that Warner has started a trade-in program for HD-DVD owners who want to go Blue-Ray - great news for people who want to jump the fence to the 'winning' side.

Not to be confused with Red Vs. Blue, which is a long-running machinima series based on a dysfunctional squad of troopers from the Halo universe. Damned funny too - you can find almost all the episodes here at Machima.com, all of which can be viewed full-screen.

Speaking of good ideas, how about this one: wrapping your iPhone in bacon. No, it's not real bacon, but a very realistic facsimile of our Fave Food in case form. Perhaps if you combined it with Bacon Spray, you could get a little closer to a non-greasy, preservative-free non-organic bacon case. Yum!

Can you tell I like bacon? *grin*

April 23 - On Blogging

Previously, I have written in this blog about, well... blogs. Coming up with new and timely postings every week is not easy without falling into a retreading rut. Unless you live a life on the run, Twittering your way though your day, getting new material for your blog is not all that easy.

ProBlogger.com has an article on how to come up with new material for your blog, so you can aspire to appearing on the Top 100 Blog List. While you may not be as popular as Neil Gaimon's blog, you can perhaps steal some eyeballs from Icanhazcheeseburger.com... and in the process give a few of them grammar lessons.

Myself, I am writing for my friends who might want to know what I am up to way out here, as well as my thoughts on various subjects near and dear to my daily life. When nothing much comes up in regards to Daily Life, I put in some Near and Dear. Which has worked fairly well, so far!

April 24 - Yo Joe!

Something of note today though: the creators of Bacon Salt appeared on Oprah today, via Skype. Talk about major celebrity endorsements... Oprah's audience of millions are already shooting the sales of Bacon Salt through the roof. I wonder if those millions know they ALSO make Baconaise?

Towards midnight, I watched G.I. Joe: Resolute on Teletoon, which was a totally new take on the much-beloved toy-driven Hasbro series from the 80's. This was not for kids however: the guns in this version missed a lot less, and the blood was front and center when they hit. I imagine it was aimed squarely at the grown-up kids from the 80's, such as myself... and I liked what I saw. Considering the long history of G.I. Joe, I hope that Resolute brings things to a new level and keeps the theme alive - considering that almost every north american male has at one time owned a G.I. Joe toy, it's a huge market.

April 25 - Ubuntu!

Another Not-Much-Save-Working Saturday, most of which I spent working the evening shift at the Colwood branch. Despite some annoyances, it was a good shift, especially since I had no last-minute doorcrashers like last week to delay me.

It seems that my old PC is not quite up to the task of running a NWN server within the parameters my project group is setting. So I spent a little time tonight putting in a spare hard drive and installing the latest version of Ubuntu, which in case you were not aware is a very popular easy-to-use version of the Linux operating system. Linux, besides being free( and open-source, meaning thousands of people around the world work on improving it on their own time )makes far better use of computer resources than any other OS, including Windows. Hopefully that extra 'leanness' will make the difference in getting things going for the project in the next few months, once it is all set up. And once I learn how to run Ubuntu... which won't be TOO long, thanks to this excellent FREE guide!

April 26 - Yard Talkin'

More yardwork today, in the lovely sunny weather. The lawn had been begging to be cut the last few weeks, but the weather had not co-operated until today. I despaired of using the massive gas-powered mower in the garage, as the fumes and noise from those things really bother me. So I went down to the local Canadian Tire and bought a reel mower, after doing some research at the LawnMowerGuide.com about some other alternatives. The mower( by Yardworks )was inexpensive and it was assembled in only a few minutes. It took me only a few passes to get the hang of it, so from there it went rather smoothly despite the bumpy nature of the lawn and was no harder to push than a regular heavy cordless or gas-powered mower. The cut was excellent too: the scissoring action is kinder to the grass tips than a duller powered blade would be, keeping the grass healthier.

I used the new version of Dragon Naturally Speaking again tonight, and really enjoyed it - it runs VERY well on my new laptop, compared to the old Blue Frankenstein of a PC I had run the previous version on. The speed is incredible, though the accuracy is still around 98% but training and correction will improve that considerably. There are a ton of other things you can do with it as well, depending on the application - I like the voice commands the best: tell your PC what to do, and off it goes! I love new tech. :-)


Well, my sister is visiting us this week all the way from Banff, AB, so I should really finish this off and close down the laptop for the evening. TTYL all!

Dragon, Doom and Development

The weather is warm, the sun is shining( sometimes )and the dandelions are spreading fast... it must be spring!

April 13 - Talk To Me PC

I spent a good part of today on the computer, despite it being the third of my days off... since it was raining on and off all day, being outside was not really an option( cool winds, too ). I managed to work through an entire season of Arrested Development, which was surprisingly watchable with back-to-back episodes - I usually have to tune out after a bit with some shows / take a breather, but not this one. Again surprising, as it deals with the tribulations of a dysfunctional family. Hm.

I worked on various things on the laptop, which has proven to be surprisingly versatile in handling a LOT of tasks - I was impressed all over again with my purchase, well worth it. Typing is a chore though, so I was pleased as all heck today when I received an email from Nuance, makers of Dragon Naturally Speaking 10 - they FINALLY came out with a version that works with the 64-bit Vista that shipped on my laptop. As a bonus, I could have my upgrade for 1/2 off retail since I already own the previous version, so I ordered it... and I am looking forward to all the cool things I can do with it once I have it installed.

What about my old PC? Well, it is running lean & mean, all set up as a server for my NWN project, though it is capable of a lot more. It does look rather cool now though, despite being antiquated:


April 14 - No More Drives?

After all these years, it seems fiction is finally becoming reality in terms of new tech replacing old: hard drives. This stolid technology has reached its pinnacle, where we see incredibly cheap storage readily available year after year. I have actually reached the point where I have more space than I have data, at least in terms of things I want to store locally and not just download from the net.

So what is slated to replace the spinning platters and whining motors of the ubiquitous hard drive? Why, the Solid State Drive, of course! Based on the same concept as flash memory cards, like those found in USB keys and camera picture cards, these drives have NO moving parts and are totally silent. Not to mention they use very little power and are very light in weight - perfect for laptop drives. Also, the speeds are incredible - have a look at the video on this page and note the fairly reasonable price! These things can already be found in devices like the EEE PC, tiny lightweight netbooks that are the hottest tech segment going right now. Too small for my needs, though some people are looking at how they perform for games.

April 15 - Other History

I enjoy stories that posit "What if?" when it comes to history, as in stories told by authors such as Harry Turtledove and his peers. The tales are sometimes based on fact, and that fact is sometimes hard to believe. Take the information at this link, for instance: German secret weapons from WWII that we thankfully did NOT see in action.

Similarly... well, not really, but it's still cool: a faster way to tie your shoes! Not to be confused with the better way to tie your shoes, listed at 17 Better Ways to Tie Your Shoes - great stuff! Too bad I switched to velcro years ago, despite its tendency to pick up things as I walk.

April 16 - Mid week, home early movies

Hokay... who wants some Bacon Popcorn? I know that you do... but I am not sure the 99-cent Chef would consider it an actual recipe or not.

It felt very strange to be leaving work ON TIME after 4 today, but that was my shift - many more like it, I hope! I am getting used to the no-glass thing, as I have said before... things are more relaxed with my customers, especially as my voice is MUCH lower in volume without a barrier between us. I am still somewhat leery of the cash dispenser, as it is not 100% perfect and has a slight hunger for bills... but I am learning to appease its odd tendencies.

I watched a few movies tonight, enjoying the acoustics of my new Man Cave. The 5.1 surround system I purchased a few years ago does a bang-up job in combination with the wood-ribbed ceiling to bounce the sound richly around the room. Makes movies and media most enjoyable, I must say.

April 17 - I owe you WHAT?

I am SO glad I did not take a vacation this spring... not that I planned to, or had the budget for it. Why? Well, yet another thing to blame on the current economy: trapped tourists. Seems that when Conquest Vacations collapsed, most of their clients were stuck with the bills wherever they were in the world... talk about culture shock.

Maybe they should go to WhatItCosts.com - where you can search out the cost for almost anything, from Alaskan Cruises to Weddings. They didn't have anything about what the value of a soul was though, so I surfed to the Devil's Tramping Ground to explore for a bit - creepy, in the dark.

Want to have a little fun with a website that has been bothering you? Surf to NetDisaster.com, type in the offending website and Choose Your Disaster. Minutes of fun, guaranteed - I like Meteors, myself.

If natural disasters make you nervous, head on over to StormPulse.com to keep track of all the latest on various storms around the globe. It has some excellent up-to-date weather graphics and a TON of information - since I live near the coast, I think I will be coming back to visit fairly often.

April 18 - Singing Sensations

Today I filled in again at our Colwood branch, which has the usual bulletproof glass and money in drawers. It was odd to go back to that, requiring me to shift some mental gears a bit, but easier than I had thought - especially since there is a Tim Horton's literally steps away( about 22 - I counted ). Not that I eat out much any more, but a nice English Breakfast Tea is always welcome, and as a bonus you get TWO teabags with the XL size - frugal as always, s'me.

We all like underdogs, where someone achieves success or greatness despite the odds, rising from the ordinary to the top of things through sheer talent. One such is Susan Boyle, whom you may have already heard has wowed the world with her vocal performance on Britain's Got Talent.

Another underdog I liked was Farscape, that sci-fi show from Muppet-master Brian Henson of the Jim Henson Company. While it never achieved a huge popularity( akin to Babylon5 )like Star Trek, I was sad to see it go, despite the fan base being pushy enough to get a two-hour movie made to complete the series. So the news back in 2007 that a new 'webisode' series was in the works was great, and just recently it appeared online - how's that for new life for old series?

April 19 - Sunday is Doomsday?

Some more morning cartoons, the best of which was Batman: The Brave & the Bold... again. Hearkening back to previous days of superhero comics, it is a good fun romp without brooding overtones - much like the old Batman show, but without the camp, odd as that may sound. Afternoon saw me doing the usual around the house, as well as painting a TV stand outside and doing some more yard tidy - MAN, things grow FAST out here, like sentient green carpets! I relaxed in the hottub for a bit, despite neighbours taking advantage of the sunshine to run all sorts of power tools - typical, but that's what earplugs are for.

Some sad news today for authors: one of our greatest, J.G. Ballard, died today. For those of you unfamiliar with his work, have a look at this lovely page here and see why you should pick up a few of his stories soon.

Today was also the Doomsday Sunday Blitz on the History Channel, meaning they played some interesting shows that were right up my alley for apocalyptic shows. One show I had on DVD already: Life After People( and the similar Aftermath: The World Without Humans ). They both posit the same question: what would happen to the Earth if the human race just up and vanished one day? Some excellent CGI and extrapolating techniques are used to show how the passing of years would affect what was left behind and how the planet would adjust to the sudden passing of humanity. Somewhat less impressive was the movie Deep Impact, which also had excellent CGI but a not-so-stellar story.

Warmer weather is moving in, which should be an interesting experience here, as the house does not have any central ducting or air conditioning - which seems to be quite common here in B.C. oddly enough. So, we will be relying on window blinds to keep out direct sun, as well as open windows to catch cool breezes from the lake.

That about does it - my next day off is Tuesday, and it's already looking rather busy... but SUNNY, so I WILL be taking time off outside. Give me a ring anytime!