HUDs, Humps and Home Depot

The word of the week is apropos.

June 7 - Apple Skins

Two million iPads sold in the last sixty-something days must be making Apple execs turn a few handsprings; not easy to do in suits, I imagine. Despite the hype, I’m not getting one, and won’t be changing my mind – the idea of an iPhone also still holds little appeal to me, especially as the things are only available via contracts with telcos in Canada, and I don’t really want an older version. Even if I did get a used one, cell phone rate plans are hellishly expensive in Canada compared to elsewhere in the world, which is sad – why is this? Also, the iPhone is still lacking quite a few features, some of which I consider essential.

I’ll start my vacation in two week’s time, and I have to say I’m really, really looking forward to it. It will be a staycation, of course – I’m planning on doing little save relax and to work the knots out of my being. I’ll be following some( but not all )of some advice for taking a staycation, mainly the ‘not spending money’ part of things. Also, I’ll be avoiding the massive crowds that are going to be packing Bear Mountain for the Telus Skins Game running June 21^st and 22^nd – if you want a good eyeball of what the place where I live now looks like, catch the game on TV on those dates. In the meantime, I’ll pop on over to Lays.ca, where they’re running a ‘local points’ program all summer to give you reason to staycation.

June 8 - Argh Healthy

I like words, as most of you know; some people of a like mind call themselves wordsmiths, others title themselves authors, and so on. Part of the fun of words is diving into their meaning and history, which include the various iterations of spelling as the language develops. One word that’s always been fun to spell is the inimitable ‘argh’ which has so many, many variations – so many, in fact, that one blogger took it upon himself to make a thorough study of the word. Check it out; he even has a chart!

A week ago, another blogger concluded a month-long experiment: How to Eat Healthy on $1 a day. Yes, that’s right – a month’s worth of food at a dollar a day. He concluded his experiment still alive, healthy and with these pithy thoughts about how to save a ton of money while feeding yourself properly. It reminds me a little of another place I visit a few times a month: LookContests.com, where you can browse all sorts of good contests safely; the site filters out scams and fraudulent sites to ensure that only legitimate contests are presented for your enjoyment and possible winning.

June 9 - Heads Up, Hump Day

Work this week has been a grind; today was supposed to be my day off, but I had to head to the other store to catch up on paperwork and put out a few smouldering fires before they became hotspots; the usual. In office parlance, today is known as Hump Day, so once it was over I only had to get through two more days until the weekend arrives – which I have scheduled myself off for, the first in many months. Considering that the area is now almost fully staffed with trained employees, it’s going to be the norm to actually take a few days in a row off, which will really help reduce my stress levels. Huzzah.

Hmmm... from HUD’s are common in fighter jets, but what about cars?  The WeGo GPS uses a HUD to allow the driver to keep their eyes on the road and operate things hands-free. Pretty cool, and it promises more possibilities for displaying info on a HUD for drivers to see.

June 10 - Future Futurama Fun

Two more weeks until Futurama returns to the airwaves on Comedy Central – I can hardly wait! Check out the 90 second trailer below:

You can also take a look at some cool Futurama alternative art, like this: The Futurama Crew as X-men!

The old Compaq laptop is humming along smoothly now, fully updated and tweaked according to my own designs. I’ve decided to use it to try out a few new operating systems in the next few months, once I get things set up to allow it to multi-boot... I’ll run Vista, XP, Ubuntu, Fedora  and a few others, as there’s gigabytes of space still even on the old hard drive. I’ve set it up to allow a secure network connection via Hamachi VPN to my newer laptop, so I’ll have full access to all my files without needing to duplicate them by storing them on the old Compaq too. It’ll be nice to be able to go anywhere and still have my documents, bookmarks and other things available securely... with a full keyboard, unlike an iPhone or iPad.

June 11 - Gas and Fireworks and Carriers

Since I don’t drive much at all any more, I don’t pay attention to many things automotive... but my eyes are still inevitably drawn to a gas station price board at least once every trip that I take in a car. In the summer, I was used to seeing gas prices rise in Ontario as inevitably as the tides, to suck as much profit from the increase in road traffic as possible. One place I liked to frequent( and still do )is GasBuddy.com  where the price of gas is tracked in almost real-time, thanks to eagle-eyed roving contributors. I’m spoiled now though, as I can just surf on over to VictoriaGasPrices.com for a local update. Sweet.

After a longer than expected workday, In the evening, I went down to Esquimalt Lagoon to watch the fireworks in celebration of the 2010 International Fleet Review. Thousands of people lined the beach, sitting comfortably on the innumerable washed-up logs common to beaches all over BC. Sitting there we could easily see the dozens of warships from various nations anchored in the bay, including the USS Ronald Regan, the newest nuclear aircraft carrier in the US navy worth a cool $5 billion and change. It and all the other ships were decked out in strings of lights, sitting peacefully in the bay as the fireworks lit the sky.

June 12 - Handyman Moi

Once breakfast was settled, I got right to work on building a screen door for the balcony door today, to take advantage of the breezes that often blow up atop the mountain here. I’d purchased the materials the day before, mainly some straight pieces of fir wood that I had cut to size at Home Depot – the critical 45-degree angles included. I measured, cut, trimmed, sanded and measured again for two hours, finally putting in the last screws just after lunchtime and then laying the screen out to be tacked down. It was a perfect fit( of course )and made me quite proud, especially as it looks clean and well-made – no rough angles, ugly screws jutting out or the like. A custom screen door in a few hours by my hand; woot!

The Snowbirds flew over the mountain here, putting on their demonstration for the crowds down in Victoria harbour – instead of fighting traffic, instead I spent a few hours over at the Mountain Bean cafe, simply relaxing and taking in the ambiance – lunch was a grilled turkey Panini sandwich with a chaser of Stewarts Root Beer, two of my favourite things enjoyed in a quiet setting reminiscent of a mountain ski lodge with the bonus of free WiFi. The afternoon was outside again, lolling in and out of the sunshine and enjoying the very quiet surroundings.

June 13 - Just Browsing The West

Over the last year, I’ve been running the five major web browers on my laptop: Firefox, Opera, Chrome, IE and lately Safari. So far, Firefox has been the winner in terms of daily use, but Apple’s Safari has been growing on me for its speed and stability. I’ve also installed Kylo, which is a great browser for use when you’ve attached your PC to a big-screen TV – it’s optimized for that sort of display, and looks great.

I whiled away the day in portions today, with a good chunk of it from morn to mid-afternoon spent in Red Dead Redemption. Lots of fun with five friends there, though by the end I’d managed to give myself a headache from the combo of rainy-weather imagery and bright sunshine outside trying to get through the window – an odd combination, that. So I spent the rest of the afternoon alternating between snoozing and reading inside, as it was far too windy to enjoy myself outside, despite the sun. During the day today I also downloaded Fallout3: GOTY Edition from Steam, which had it for half price for the PC – quite the deal, considering Best Buy is still charging an arm and a leg for the thing. I’ll play it thoroughly on my staycation in a few weeks time, hopefully on my laptop outside in the nice fresh BC mountain air.

Whenever I write up a blog, I’m always taken aback by the time it takes; if I haven’t added much during the week, a good two or three hours can pass by while I compile, write and edit each week’s entry. Surprising, even after doing it for over two and a half years now.

Gadgets, Games and Ghyslain

The word of the week is febrile.

May 31 - Same Junk, New Format

It’s the end of May, and it’s cool here in BC – quite cool compared to last year, where the temperatures were around 15-20 degrees hotter than they are now. It’s been rainy here since the weekend began, and being on a mountain there’s a lot of misty clouds rolling around in the morning and evenings. Much prettier than hazy clouds of smog or the shimmer of a heatwave from the concrete expanse of a city, I think.

Do you remember The Sharper Image stores from the 80’s, or even The Den For Men shops? I loved browsing around those places in the days when paper catalogs were still infrequently updated and the internet hadn’t been invented yet as a place to shop. A modern equivalent is GadgetUniverse.com where you can browse all sorts of cool things you didn’t know you needed... and that you will likely regret getting very soon afterwards. I mean, who needs a dashboard video recorder for your car, anyway? And they don’t carry plasma balls either , which are the true sign of a cool gadget store....

June 1st - Free Your Brain

I like online games... especially free ones. In the last few years, you can find pretty much every kind of game you love to play for free online in some form of flash-based browser format or another. Most are arcade-style, but others allow multiple players to interact – check out the World’s Largest List of Free Games!! One of the more amusingly different MMO’s  that sees hundreds of players a day log in, is Kingdom of Loathing, where you can adventure as a stick figure with a club. Filled with dark humour, make sure you try it on a sunny day.

Is the internet bad for people’s brains? Nicholas Carr, a UCLA professor, thinks it is – and the answer lies in the simple book. Have a look at the solid article over on Wired and you’ll see why... long-term memory seems to fragment if media-rich information is used, wheras the simple book is the perfect medium to transfer knowledge to the long-term spots of our meaty brains. Whoulda thunk it?

***On an extra-special note: late this evening I drove to pick up my sister, who had managed to arrange a ride way, way out here all the way from Alberta. We've been planning this secret visit for weeks to surprise my mom, who has her birthday tomorrow. When I showed up with my sister in tow at the condo, there was much excitement - my mother was thrilled speechless that we'd managed to get my sister out here in secret in time for her birthday!! They spent all of the next day together( I had to work and so did my dad )so that was a really special present for my mother, as we hadn't seen my sister for over a year. Love my family. :-)

June 2 - Anyone seen my Sword of Omens?

Aintitcool News had a gem posted today: the Thundercats are coming back as a TV series in 2011! Following the trend of rebooting 80’s culture, Lion-O and Cheetara will strut on the screen again in all their catlike glory – hopefully without Snarf. Sweet!

I spent the first half of today in a training seminar with a dozen of my co-workers from the area, which was fun for the most part – everyone I work with is creative, intelligent and generally fun to be around, which can’t be said for other places and people I’ve encountered in my various day jobs. I'm pleased to see that this company is placing more direct focus on continual training upgrades these last couple of years, as it shows a progressive aim towards solid employee skills. Which means more work for all of us, but I'd rather be learning than doing by rote - that's boring.

June 3 - Relax, it's Thursday

Today was my one day off this week; nothing to do with work, and work had nothing to do with me – not a single phone call disturbed me all day long. After relaxing with some PC games in the morning, I spent some hours playing RDR of course, but I cut out early when the sun decided to finally shine in the late afternoon. I spent a pleasant few hours on the balcony, basking in the warm western glow of the sun which bathes that side of the condo every evening – not a place to tan, but just to relax. Lovely.

Here’s a gem from io9.com: What it was like to be a writer on Firefly. It’s a solid article with a lot of great info, and though I’m not a Browncoat I still love reading about the show – all the details that were never gone into, background etc. It’s the mark of a great show gone too early that it leaves you with more questions than answers, and you want to know those answers – instead of just scratching your head and changing the channel after trying to watch Twin Peaks. Or more recently, Lost – which I still have to catch up on, again

June 4 - Puttin' it off

Over the years I’ve been getting better at getting things done, but procrastination still rears its ugly head from time to time. If you’re not sure if you procrastinate, go and take the Procrastination Test over at Psychology.com to see – don’t wait, don’t put it off... go do it!

I always like those “Whatever happened to...?” articles, though Gary Coleman’s passing of late( as well as Corey Feldman )shows that happy endings are rare enough to be treasured. Such seems to be the case with Ghyslain Raza, also known as The Star Wars Kid – 2002 was not kind to him, but today he’s doing a lot better for himself. Who knows? Someone may pop up a video of you one day and you’ll have to deal with millions of adoring fans – look at how Kristen Stewart recently handled the question of fame.

June 5 - Touring Brains

Virtual Tourism may be the thing of the future: why pack yourself onto a slow-moving cruise ship that spends too much of its time on the boring ocean when you can play tourist from your own couch? Check out EarthCam.com – you can find ideas of places to visit from your LonelyPlanet.com travel account. Having lived next to Niagara Falls all my life, I find being labelled a tourist somewhat derogatory, so I’d prefer to be called a world traveller or even a vacationist... though the last one sounds really lame.

What do you do with your free time? How has that use changed over the last century in general? These and other interesting questions are asked by Clay Shirky and Daniel Pink in their related books that are out this summer – Wired Magazine has a great summary article that delves into the hows and whys of what free time means to people in today’s fast-paced media-soaked culture. Great reading.

June 6 - Sacrifice on Sunday

Today marks the 66^th anniversary of D-Day, when thousands of Canadians joined other Allied troops in storming the beaches of Normandy and so helped to ultimately liberate Europe, ending Nazi tyranny. I remember seeing The Longest Day on TV as a child, totally captivated by the spectacle of courage under fire so portrayed – I spent the entire movie glued to the set, which was rare for me as a kid. Amazing that I can still see that film every few years and not skip parts of it, despite the epic length of the thing.

Some local news: part of a plaza( Colwood Corners )one block down the road from where I work burned to the ground today. I’ve shopped there and driven by many a time, so seeing it in ashes is rather shocking; good thing nobody was injured as it started in the early AM. I imagine they’ll sweep things up and soon enough have something new there, like another Starbuck’s or a McDonald’s... ‘tis the way of things.

Don’t forget to visit NewtAndJohn.com for the latest craziness: jets vs. paper airplanes! I’m posting early tonight so I can a’bed, as it’s shaping up to be an 11+ hour day tomorrow again...

Gunslingers, Guides and Google

The word of the week is basically.

May 24 – Vic Daze

Being a holiday, I managed to take the day off work and tried to spend a good part of it relaxing. It worked, for the most part, though I didn’t manage to reach a Zen state or anything close. For the most part, I tried to fix my parents old laptop, and finally got it booting in the late afternoon under Windows XP. From there it was hours of work to install Windows Vista, which I also owned – hard and slow work with only 512mb of RAM, but I got it done. I left it chugging away at updates overnight at the end. Maybe when I’m done and the little monster is fully functional, I’ll treat it to a skin from Gelaskins.com, which has some very cool custom artwork that you can smooth over the top of your laptop, cheaply too.

I’m an observant listener, a skill most necessary for being a writer – you have to pay attention to what people say, how they say it and all the things they aren’t saying that layer around the words themselves. Which means that when I hear things that repeat, I tend to pick up on them, especially local trends in language. Much like the ubiquitous ‘yes/no’ that has pervaded some people’s speech for the last few years( and thankfully seems on the decline )another word I have heard a lot of lately is ‘basically’. Words tend to stand out sometimes, like suddenly being able to see the same model of car in the traffic around you one day, whereas before it was all a sea of the same moving metal. It’s an odd skill, but one I find fascinating when it rears itself.

May 25 – Gunning for invention

Before work today I picked up a copy of Red Dead Redemption from Best Buy, which came with a bonus download for a War Horse – I’ll add it to the game later once I have some time to play with it. I had to wait until today to get it, as all the local retailers have been out of stock since last week’s release date. I flipped through the manual briefly on my break at work and liked what I saw – I also checked the CD for scratches, as I always do when I purchase a DVD... sometimes those little plastic tabs that hold the disc in place break during shipping, and I’ve had to return several DVD sets over the years as they’ve been badly damaged as the bits scratched away at the surface while they were handled in transit. Wasteful.

Hmmm... this is a cool place to surf: Inventorspot.com, which showcases the wildly wonderful things that human imagination can come up with, for the world to see. Very cool indeed, and with a fair lack of As Seen On TV-style plastic crapola made in China, at least from what I’ve seen to date.

May 26 – Cloudy Skies Out West

Today I spent a good deal of the day playing Red Dead Redemption, simply exploring the game world in general. So far, it’s been a solid experience; instead of being railroaded into storylines, the game seems to wait patiently for you to make a choice and then guides you down that path. Great stuff.

It’s been a blah, blah week here weather-wise, with nothing but solid layers of clouds and only occasional rain day to day. Sometimes the sun cuts through in the early morning or late evening as it ducks below the cloud layer, but I’ve been surprised by the cool temperatures and continual grey that have manifested this week – very unlike the usual changeable BC weather here on Vancouver Island. Still, no smog and no heatwave is fine by me, considering how stinking hot it was here last year at this time.

May 27 – Not my sick day?

Darn it all, the world of bacon has been pretty quiet lately, with not a lot to report... save that a recent vote has come up with the best bacon flavour name in the world. I think it has potential, and I’ll try to figure out a way to test it out myself one of these days. Not having a BBQ or deep-fryer here does make things a tad difficult, but I’m sure I’ll figure out a way somehow.

Not much to write about today work-wise; one of the girls called in sick with the 24-hour bug that’s been going around, so I hung in from 8am to 7pm to ensure we had proper coverage for the day. One thing that MMart doesn’t do is hire part-time staff; for the massive amount that CSR’s have to remember to do every day in their jobs, being here less than 25 hours a week doesn’t work to keep on top of the workload and training. Part of being fully-staffed in the near future means being able to call people in to cover days like today, so that’s another goal of mine to reach sooner rather than later.

May 28 - Yep

It’s interesting to see how people develop their social networks over the course of their lives; I remember reading an article years ago( and think I still have clipped, somewhere )about how many people an individual encounters with ‘friend potential’ over the course of their lives. I believe the number was around 2500 or so, with urban dwellers having a higher pool to work with compared to small-town folks, obviously. I’ll have to dig up the article, as I believe it also went into the differences between friends, acquaintances and co-workers – important to know if you just lump everyone into one big list.

Yeah, a very stressful day at work; things of late have been very, very punishing to me mentally, and I’m finding my short-term memory is not 100%. Forgetting some little details is becoming easier, and I hate that – HATE it, as it shows a mental weakness that I thought I’d never suffer from. Still, I do my best, and can only hope that as the summer progresses that running two stores will prove easier than I thought. Considering the levels of stress I’m dealing with at work, I should really be making far more an hour than I am... and that adds to my stress levels all the more. Ironic, eh?

May 29 – Sun and Sleep

Some sunshine peeked through the clouds today, on and off, culminating in some decent rays by evening – it was good to feel the sun on my face as I left work. Especially as each day now seems to fly by in an orgy of over-responsibility and paperwork, which really comes as no surprised but is unwelcome all the same. Having fun on the job seems reduced to making jokes in between cranky customers, fixing problems caused by staff and generally trying to plug as many leaks in a day as possible before new ones start the process all over again the next day. If they made Valium cappuccinos, I might just buy a box soon. Maybe if I had a yacht like this one, I could pop down to Victoria harbour and sail off for the rest of the weekend. Nothing like having a supercar in a garage on your own private yacht, right?

At least I’m sleeping a little better this week; the new curtains and some earplugs are working well together. As well, I’m cutting back on my caffeine for the day, limiting myself to a tea or two in the afternoon and none in the morning, in the thinking that the less I have the more effective they will be. Also, too many in a day really messes up your body clock; I’ve been reading this guide to rebooting your sleep cycle from Lifehacker.com and it makes a lot of sense. More on how effective it’s been as I go.

May 30 – Bang Bang TV

Holy lost hours Batman... after breakfast I hopped onto Xbox Live with Red Dead Redemption, to find five of my friends also playing it. Six hours or so later I had to call a stop, as my game was steadily getting worse. From winning a solid streak of games in a row( go me! )I went to holding up the bottom end of the scoreboard – annoying and frustrating, but I think it was just the week’s stress catching up to me on top of being tired. Not a good combo.

So, in the evening I did my best to de-stress by watching streaming episodes of Farscape on the big TV, looking damn good for all of it being free – and 24/7 too! I still think this is the future of the media; the recently announced Google TV will do away with the ‘tyranny’ of unwanted channels on your cable box cluttering up your choices with programs you have no interest in( sports, in my case ). It will be fascinating to see how the next ten years sees a shakeout in the media,

All for now – my head’s killing me and I have a 12-hour day to look forward to, on a Monday no less. Ick.

Hoaxes, Hospital and Holidays

The word of the week is ignominious.

May 17 – Transforming TV’s

Every so often I pop on over to How It Should Have Ended.com to see what movie they’ve sent up lately. Having suffered again through Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen in an attempt to enjoy it without letting the plot holes devour my brain, I was ticked to find it spoofed on HISHE.com – go have a look, they have plenty of other films mocked in various brilliant ways. Roll out...

Ah, technology... it marches ever on. We went from dot matrix printers to lasers to inkjets, getting cheaper all the way. The same went for televisions: from black and white tubes to colour, then from tubes to plasma and LCD. Now DuPont has married both printing and television: they demonstrated today a custom device that will print a 50-inch television in under two minutes that will last 15 years... seriously. That’s just freakin’ amazing – I mean, printing a television, folks. What’s next? TV tattoos?

May 18 – Draw, varmint!

Red Dead Redemption was released today, quickly climbing to the top of the gaming charts for its incredible depiction of the Old West. I’m a big fan of eye candy, so I’m going to wait a little bit to see how this one stacks up for replayability along with the incredible visuals. From the reviews so far, it looks to have legs – we’ll see how it runs. Or gallops, considering the game’s all about the Wild West.

Taking a vacation in the old West sounds like a great idea, since I’ve managed to schedule a week of vacation for myself in a month’s time – the first time I’ll have had more than 3 days off in a row for non-medical reasons since August of last year when I visited Niagara. S’been too long... right now I don’t have any plans save relaxing and seeing a bit more of the island on my time off. Should be enough...

May 19 – What day is it?

Have you ever wondered where the names for the days of the week come from, or are they just one of the things that you take for granted and don’t think about from day to day? Same goes for the names of the months of the year: they all came from somewhere, which is interesting to backtrack to find out how things turned out the way they did for us here in the enlightened modern age.

Sometimes in the middle of the week, you need a little fun. So hop on over to Instants, where a whole page of buttons just begs you to push a few to see what happens. I wish I could push a few buttons on a new type of ATM introduced in Abu Dhabi, one that dispenses gold. Considering that the price of gold keeps climbing, it’s a safe bet – for now. I’ll bet Chuck Norris doesn’t use ATM’s -

May 20 – Smartly Strange

Moving to Victoria was definitely a smart choice for me, and today Maclean’s Magazine backed me up with proof – they ranked Canada’s Smartest Cities and Victoria came in on top! I learned a few things about my adopted home from the article, like the fact that 100% of residents have high-speed ‘net access( sweet! )and 77% of them spent money to have that access. Bring it on, Google! What’s not smart? Well, if you’re a mugger, don’t chase down your target and end up catching them outside a ninja dojo... it probably won’t end well for you. That’s dumb, folks.

Sneaky, smart or something else? What do you think of the news about a strange creature that was ‘discovered’ in a creek in northern Ontario today? A hoax, or a shrewd plan to increase tourism for the tiny town? If it’s true, then there’s something odd swimming around in the water up there... scary?

May 21 – Med News: it lives!

Today was a day off for me, as I went into the hospital for an endoscopy to see if there’s anything there shouldn’t be in my plumbing. The exploratory itself went extremely well, though the news that my stomach was inflamed didn’t please me. Time for my doctor and me to get together to discuss more options: food allergies are my primary suspect, but malabsorbtion is a big place to start.

Some good news about an old laptop today: my parent’s old Compaq. I had thought it was irreparable after trying on and off for a few years, but I took it in to have it tested at a local shop as all else had failed... and it turns out it was a twitchy power supply. So I’ve elatedly ordered a new one via eBay, and once that’s arrived I’ll be able to reformat the thing with a few modifications for my own use – I don’t want to risk toting my expensive GatewayFX around town, but I’ll gladly do some writing and surf the ‘net on a simple box. I may pop Ubuntu onto the thing too, depending on how well the repairs go. Woot!

May 22 – What the frell...?

By the morning I was feeling quite fine and ready for work after relaxing for a good part of yesterday – nothing like catching catnaps between movies to make your day speed by. Which was a good thing, as things became very busy right after my co-worker had left at their shift-end – of course. The good weather had beaten back the clouds, so the usual crowds of people decided to take advantage of the opening and headed out To Do Things on this lovely Saturday afternoon – including seeing me. Yip.

After a busy day, I relaxed in the evening by hooking up my laptop to my widescreen TV and cuing up streaming episodes of Farscape – how cool is that? An HDMI cable, a few mouseclicks and I’m enjoying top-level sci-fi on the widescreen, for a TV series that’s been off the air for years and that I’ve yet to find on DVD for a reasonable price. Amazon.ca has it in stock, but I’m still not biting – yet. Considering how low prices have dropped for 1 terabyte hard drives now, I could easily pack my entire DVD collection onto a single media PC and serve it up fresh . All I need to do is decide on the interface( like Windows Home Server )and set it up... plus purchase a PC to run it on and install Kylo to surf on the big TV – nice!

May 23 – Left Out

It’s a double update today! First off, Brian has a new painting entitled Boatman’s Holiday, which looks stunning. It’s his second cover painting for StarshipSofa, which incidentally was nominated for a Hugo Award! Next up – a new episode of Newt and John by Mike Hogue, which is the newest in their weekly instalment of adventure. I love seeing how Two Roommates Take On The Universe!

For my day off today, I logged into Xbox Live to find everyone playing Red Dead Redemption, so I popped out to get a copy to join in( why not, if everyone has it? )only to find it was sold out – everywhere. I went to two places and called another three, but nobody has a copy right now; the next ones guaranteed to come in will be Tuesday, so I think I’ll pick it up from BestBuy as they have a ‘War Horse’ DLC that comes with it. From everything I’ve read this week, Red Dead looks like it packs plenty of open-world play, so we’ll see if it lives up to my hopes. As for the rest of my day: I spent quite a few hours sorting the last of my stuff, so now my stuff is finally put into place and I have a room that’s a refuge from stress. Nice.

Yes, it is quite relaxing now that I’ve tossed the last cardboard box into the recycling and I know where to find most everything I packed in April – a good feeling. Sleep on it.

Deathlands, Digression and District 9

The word of the week is ignominious.

May 10 - Relax, it's just an MMO...

So far, so good this week – plugging away at work while managing some relax time at home has been the plan that’s worked so far. I’m down to a box or two of things in the condo that still need a final home, but for the most part everything that is still in storage can stay in storage until I decide what to do with it – more on that further down the page in this blog. I’ve found pretty much everything I needed, and that’s a good thing; making the trek down to the storage locker at the far end of the parking garage  is a lot further than the basement was at the Langford Lake house.

For quite a few years now, MMORPG.com has been sending me regular updates via email, about all the current and upcoming Massively Multiplayer Online Roleplaying games that are worth mentioning. Alongside the much-anticipated MMO Star Wars: The Old Republic from Bioware( yay! )there is buzz about Fallen Earth, a post-apocalyptic game from a smaller developer. It has mutants and radiation and, well... it looks interesting, so I think I’ll give it a try this week. From what I can tell, it’s free apart from the regular game purchase price – sweet!

May 11 - Quiz me, Monkey!

Facebook is overflowing with all sorts of quizzes, tests and suchlike ways to find out more than you ever wanted to know about things you didn’t know you need to know about. Rather than bombard my friends with dozens of quiz requests and the like, I head on over to HelloQuizzy.com and browse for the more interesting ones, like the 3-Variable Funny Test, to check out your sense of humour. S’great!

Some years back, I found an interesting site: The Monkey Shakespeare Simulator which sadly has since gone offline – you can read a little about it here. In essence, the site was created to determine how long it would take an ever-increasing group of monkeys to randomly type the collected works of William Shakespeare, commonly known as the Infinite Monkey Theorem. Given the nature of the problem, the universe would likely end before they accomplished the task – but hey, you never know with monkeys, right? I should really add it to ChurchOfTheBanana.com as a historical footnote, albeit a recent one. And hey, someone out there noticed that Bananas Can Be Worshipped too!

May 12 - Lazers on eBay

Hmmm... it’s been a while since I last shopped on eBay; how about the rest of you? Having moved as often as I have( every 2 years or so )has meant I’ve had to take a long look at what I want to keep and what I want to get rid of. To date, they’ve gone into the following categories: Sell, Recycle, or Garbage as well as Keep as Too Expensive to Easily Replace, Keep Because of Fond Memories, or the largest category of Keep Because It’s Still Useful. Over the next few months I will be sorting and storing lots of things so that when the next inevitable move happens I’ll have even less to worry about. Or have to put on eBay after the move, which is never a good idea – why pay to move things if you don’t have to? I have to admit, I like the idea of NOT owning something now and being able to find it later( maybe )on eBay or Craigslist.

One of the things I sold off before moving to BC was my Lazer Tag collection, which I had hung onto for years past when it should have gone; I really loved the stuff, despite the massive number of AA and 9V batteries it required. I really liked the white Starlyte Pro Rifles, which I managed to acquire 3 of from various NY toy stores as they went on sale after Worlds of Wonder went under – no mean feat, as those things were hard to get in the first place. Still, I sold off the entire collection to a family in SK, whose large numbers of youngsters promised to give the gear many more years of good use than I could. The only thing I kept was the B.L.A.S.T. Bazooka... it was just too cool to part with, really.

May 13 - Day Off Digression

My second Thursday off in a row! I feel like I’m playing hooky from work, to a small degree, but surprised all the same that I can take the time off considering how crazy this last month has been. I made a point of spending time outside for a few hours in the afternoon, actually falling asleep in the sunshine at one point in the lovely quiet of the nearby golf course and the almost total lack of traffic noise nearby. In the evening I spent a few hours putting up much-needed curtains in both bedrooms, as the earlier light in the mornings has been tough to sleep through  – being on a mountain means we get the first rays of the sun before anyone else. So it’ll be good indeed to sleep in, instead of fitfully dozing past 6am.

Four Simple Financial Rules are some good advice to follow when planning your own financial future. I don’t claim to be an expert in any way when it comes to finances, but I do know how to learn from my mistakes AND to recognize good advice when I see it. The simpler, the better, in my eyes.

May 14 - Iron Man, Tin Authors

Last week Iron Man 2 opened to strong sales across the country, and while critics may not have loved it as much as the first one, reviews are still decent. I think I’ll take it in at the IMAX downtown in a few weeks on my next day off, as I really liked the first one and have added it to my burgeoning Blu-Ray list for next year( or the year after ).

Last month, I parted ways with my large collection of Deathlands books which I realized last year I was no longer reading. I’d collected them for close to twenty years, at first because I thought the post-apocalyptic stories were cool and later on as examples of poor / inconsistent writing to help me along with my own development as an author. I also liked the fact that they were published by Gold Eagle Publishing in Fort Erie, which was just down the road from me back in Ontario. Though I lost interest in ever applying there as an author, given what they let hit the stands in some of the Deathlands series. I’m glad to see that James Axler.com is alive and well, which collects all the current Deathlands lore in one place; good to see it’s in good hands for when I want to surf back on occasion for a look-see.

May 15 – Martin Visits!

Today I finished work early, heading downtown a little after 1pm to rendezvous with Martin in Victoria. Yes, that’s right: today marks the first time in over two years that one of my friends has managed to make it to BC for a visit! I was thrilled, and met up with him on the streetside patio of The Irish Times Pub on Government street, where he had procured a table in the sun. We caught up over beers( my first Guinness since July, I believe )and some delicious food, while watching the world go by. Even after the sun had moved to leave the patio in the shade, we chatted whilst the world trotted, cycled or drove by mere feet away under a gloriously blue summer sky. Towards departure time, we took a short tour of Victoria with an emphasis on the scenery: Dallas Road and Oak Bay’s fabulous streets made an impression, I think. We made it back to the downtown in plenty of time for Martin to catch his island-hopper plane flight back to Vancouver, which I think I will use myself when it comes time for me to hop off the island – 30 minutes vs 4 hours of driving / ferry / bus transfers. I was sad to see Martin leave, as it had only been a short visit, but I was escatic that he had taken the time to come out my way to see how I was doing. I only hope it is the first of many visits by my friends as they are able, in the years to come.

The evening’s entertainment was District 9, another film I’d not got around to seeing until tonight. The FX were incredible, all the more so as they took a backseat for most of the film which was concerned with the issues at hand, being shot more as a documentary / news special about human-alien relations. I found myself watching it in large chunks without interruption, something I usually don’t do at home – pausing the DVD player at many points to do other things has become fairly routine for me of late.

May 16 - A Paper Concorde?

Mike Hogue’s Newt and John weekly webcomic was updated today( er, Mondays! )again – with more on the supersonic paper airplane! Seriously cool, seriously funny work... how can you not like a 3D model of the world’s largest paper airplane that goes faster than the speed of sound? Make sure you check it out and prepare your belly laugh...

Ahhh.... Sundays. Pancakes for breakfast, then some long-missed Call of Duty MW2 for a few hours with Lucas, Simon and Dave. Good times. I quickly got back into the groove, with only one game in the whole day being a wash – I felt very good by the time I called it quits to head outside and read in the lovely afternoon sunshine.

The  month of May marks 2.5 years  of writing this weekly blog... so far, so good. It’s great to have a deadline( of sorts )to prepare for each week, ensuring that I keep things up to date with my life while not retreading old ground or relating the trivial. To that end, the blog has worked very well, I believe.

Apple, Avatar and Aircraft

The word of the week is ... specular.

May 3 – The Seattle Apple?

Now this is what superheroes are all about: Electron Boy Saves Seattle! It’s stories like these that give me hope about our future, and that people are able to do things that step outside the norm to show us all how compassion and humanity can work wonders both large and small. I wonder if any of the people on the World Superhero Registry can claim to have saved an entire city? If they can, then I’d say the age of the superhero has finally arrived.

Not so super: The iPad ... to buy, or not? Try as I might, I can’t find a compelling reason for me to even contemplate purchasing one – I have a Nano now and even that has more functionality than I need, really. Two weeks from now it will be available in Canada, and until then you can vote on whether or not you feel the pressing need to purchase one – and US Prez Obama is against it. For now, I’ve settled for installing Apple’s Safari browser on my laptop, to see how well it plays compared to Opera, Firefox and Chrome. So far? Firefox is winning!

May 4 – Zombie Emails

Did you know that May is Zombie Awareness Month? I sure didn’t, but I’m glad that I know now; I’ve been meaning to pick up a copy of the Zombie Survival Guide to pack in my footlocker alongside my chainsaw and road flares. ‘Cuz you never know when the end of the world will suddenly make itself known... kinda the point, really. I may rework my recent apocalyptic story The Last Playlist to expand it a little, as having re-read it lately I’ve found it to be lacking in a little detail as to the nature of the world within.

At the moment, I’ve been using the Lightning organizer plugin for my Thunderbird email client. It’s been good so far, but I’m sure that I’m barely tapping it’s potential. However, seeing as organizers are mainstream now( like zombies! ) I’m also sure that I will find more uses for it as time goes on – it’s all a matter of organization and the best part is: it’s all free!

May 5 - Avatar

I managed to survive today, which was my 32^nd day without a day off... but I have tomorrow off and tonight, so I decided to treat myself and celebrate my mental survival after that long, long stretch. I took the bus into town, down to the Victoria waterfront and had a stellar meal of salmon at the Milestones restaurant on the waterfront. It was accompanied by my first beer in many months, and helped me wash down the irony of dining alone on their weekly Date Night – had I known, I likely still would have gone. After the meal, it was a short walk over to the IMAX Theatre at the Royal BC Museum to see Avatar much larger than life – I’d yet to have seen it and had taken pains not to spoil it with advance info. Once the movie began, the crowd was utterly silent for the whole few hours, save for the usual audience reactions. We were spellbound - IMHO, an IMAX theatre is the ONLY place to truly enjoy this film as it was meant to be seen. Find one and make the drive, it IS worth it!

Coming out of the theatre, there was nothing but positive reaction and smiles on everyone's faces, including my own.. though I have to admit a bias here: the character of Neytiri bore a shocking resemblance to my own lithely-catlike creation Nich. I think I will cut James Cameron some slack though, and not take issue with the coincidence, as she was blue and Nich is, well... rather more crimson. In any case, I had a blast, and I think when I pick up a Blu-Ray player( MAYBE )by year's end I shall make this my first purchase. I am not sure how well the story( *wince* )will hold up, but the love story was decent  without being overplayed and the visuals alone will make my eyes pop for many a year to come, in HD. A good ending to the night; I felt the tension of the last month finally drain away by the time I got back home.

May 6 – Relaxed at last!

Today was my first official day off, so I slept in somewhat late – 8am, and it felt good. I spent the first half of the day just relaxing, catching up on my reading with a cuppa tea at my elbow - All The Windwracked Stars is but one of many books I have on the run, this one by Elizabeth Bear and a darned good read if somewhat ambiguous on who the bad guys are and it seems a little overloaded with guilt. Like any of us need more of that.

Everything secret is eventually declassified given time, so it’s no surprise that even the SR-71 Blackbird would see the sun set on some of it’s secrets. F’rinstance, you can have a look at its formerly Top-Secret  Flight Manual online – how cool is that? The Blackbird is an iconic aircraft, a symbol of both speed and super-secrecy from an earlier era that will be with us for a long, long time... at least in museums, that is.

May 7 – Fryday

Work seems to be coming together fairly well, which is a good thing - the stress levels have to ease off soon, or my hair and I are going to part ways( or at least have a massive colour change ). Being in charge of two branches brings its own challenges, but I'm somewhat tickled that I have my own office now. Once I get all the paperwork squared away, I'll see to personalizing it a little - way better than a cubicle, as it has a DOOR and walls!

Finally, the wait is almost over: Blizzard announced that the Starcraft II release date is July 27, 2010. There’s going to be massive Starcraft Sickdays taken in Korea on that day, I tell you – the game is hugely popular there. Also just released is an oldie but goodie: Mechwarrior IV – for free! The good folks at MekTek have compiled a downloadable release of the entire game, enhanced with code updates and all the downloadable extras. Y’have t’love it a gaming community like that. Or a scientific community that creates artificial muscles like they use in battlemechs... neat, eh?

May 8 – Starcraft Saturday

I worked again today when I really shouldn’t have, to help out at the downtown store whose staff right now consists of a newly-minted manager and a gaggle of trainees... they’re really strained. I managed to get through the day without too many issues, though it of course became busy as soon as I showed up – that, I’m used to. Even having the police showed up for a false alarm didn’t really phase me, as I’m fairly used to my efforts to help out others being punished somehow by Fate; since I know someone else is laughing, so who am I to take away a smile?

Smiles are few and far between sometimes, but here's something to make you laugh: The World's Funniest Jokes! Nice that they're all indexed too...

May 9 – Sam who?

It’s nice to have a Sunday off, but I’ll still be working at least 1 in 4 every month to ensure the staff at both my branches have equal time off all around – happy, happy. Today was Mother’s Day, a low-key one at that... I took my mom out to Home Depot so she could pick out some plants for the balcony. We were surprised by the huge variety and massive size of the plants at the local store; Home Depot is not somewhere I would have thought to have such a well-stocked Garden Dept, given that in ON White Rose was usually the place to go – before they downsized in 1999. She was quite pleased, and the balcony has become an oasis of potted plants festooned with solar lights, which makes it very cool to see at night.

My evening was spent dozing on and off, as I felt the last few weeks catching up to me at last. I tried to watch a bit of Terminator: Salvation on The Movie Channel, but it was painful enough even with the audio muted that I gave up and simply worked on putting a few more things away from wayward boxes. Of interest: Sam Worthington of Avatar was also in Term: Salvation and the Clash Of The Titans reboot, so he went from stinker to top of the Box Office to stinker again. Not bad at all for someone I’ve never heard of before 2009, if you have to have it on your IMDB page. With that, I’m a-bed early.

Thanks for the comments on the past few blogs; love to see it lively!

Bass, Bacteria and Booty

The word of the week is ...  squee?

April 26 – Fungal Souls

Now how did I miss this news tidbit? I deal with people signing papers at work a dozen times a day easily, so when I say that 99% of them never, ever read what they’re signing I know of what I speak. So when I read today that over 7,500 people in the UK unknowingly sold their souls to a British gaming website, I have to say I was surprised the number was so low. What’s a soul worth these days on eBay, anyway?

I read today that there’s a strain of toxic fungus that is spreading across the north-western United States and is already here in Lower B.C. – scary when you don’t have a clue that this sort of thing exists. Scarier still is the fact that it’s been linked to the deaths of dozens of people to date and you begin to wonder how safe things really are outside your front door...

April 27 – Want a RIM job?

As part of my new role as manager of the Colwood branch, I’ve been given a Blackberry... which I’m not thrilled about. I can see how useful it could be if I was CEO of a large company being buried in immediate emails, or running my own business, or globe-trotting... but at the moment I see it as an electronic leash. At least I can turn this model off, and for now all it’s going to be used for is regular phone calls. RIM, the creators of the Blackberry, announced today that it’s planning to double the number of users to 100 million... which means going head-to-head with Apple for the market dominated by the iPhone – so that’s going to be an interesting fight.

Moving update: most of the unpacking is done, and we’ve condensed what remains into a pair of storage units in the condo basement – soon to be one unit, as I work my way through boxes deciding what really needs to stick around until the next move. It’ll be nice to have the leisure to do so, when I can pick out things I’ll need later, things that I’ll need now, and things I’ll never need again – those will go on eBay or elsewhere. My room is still half boxes, so I’m looking forward to getting things squared away over the next couple of weeks on my days off – leisurely. I still haven’t found my old pair of glasses yet – oops.

April 28 – Surviving Iron Man

In my few off moments, I’ve tuned my TV fairly regularly to whatever channel is playing Survivorman – the host Les Stroud isolates himself for a week in the harshest environments while filming himself well, surviving. It’s like a travel shop and survival instruction rolled into one, which is fascinating to watch – you get to see some of the skills that you have to have to keep yourself alive with no food and little in the way of supplies scavenged from the area around him. Very cool reality TV.

This is a neat little application: it uses your PC’s webcam to put your face into the Heads-Up Display of  Iron Man’s Helmet, so You Too Can Be Tony Stark, just like in the movies. I’ve yet to see the sequel, which probably means I’ll catch it on DVD like most of the movies I’ve seen in the last year. I’ve been seeing a few here and there on The Movie Channel in the last few weeks, as Shaw gave us a ‘moving promo’ of a free month to watch... so far, I’ve been very underwhelmed with the selection, which seems to focus on two-star movies for the most part – I’ve no desire to see more of Eddie Murphy anytime soon.

April 29 – Playing Hard with Bugs

Just like when I was a kid, playing at being a knight, these guys are still doing it well into adulthood – and making a funny video out of it to boot. When LARPers attack is an look at how make-believe can go wrong in amusingly horrifying ways. Which makes gaming around a table piled high with dice, rulebooks, miniatures, chips and pop looks downright appealing by comparison...

Ask, and you might receive: in the form of a beta. Software publishers these days seem to enjoy using the public to test their software before release, which is really cost-effective when you think about it. Microsoft especially; Windows 7 was available for a year as a Public Beta before it was finalized, and they’re doing the same with the 64-bit version of Windows Home Server starting just a few weeks ago. I’m considering WHS for a future upgrade, so it’s ironic that there’s a beta out there I could test, IF I owned a newer PC – which I don’t( no 64-bit in my old AMD ). So I’m stuck, but that’s the way it goes.

April 30 – Stupid Bass Mentals

Last night I had a total of 3 hours of sleep, thanks to the party-crazy bass-loving folks downstairs, who started their highly-audible music at 11:15pm and didn’t stop until 3:45am. We contacted the RCMP shortly after midnight, but the officer dispatched went to the wrong building – apparently the place up the hill is the one that gets all the calls, not ours, so he mistook the address. I waited downstairs in the lobby for him until 3am, then called again... at which point they sent the officer out again and I waved him down at the traffic roundabout outside. He was quick to put a stop to the noise, I have to say – from what he told me the people below us had “just moved in” ... which doesn’t fly with having loud music in the early morning. Anyway, the officer encouraged us to call again if there was a repeat offence then bylaw tickets would be immediately issued – which he’d also informed the Downstairs People about. I was impressed with the way things were handled, as well as the quick responses we received today from the Condo association as well as the Strata Corp that handles our condo rental – everyone was very concerned that the problem be handled to our satisfaction and that we were assured it wouldn’t be a continuing issue, which we were worried about... we’re quiet people and just want to sleep at night.

Yet again, I’m not impressed with warranties – mainly the things that are considered ‘consumables’ which in electronic terms means lamps and a few other fairly expensive parts. Which is what happened to my parent’s TV: the Sony simply faded to black today, so I called the warranty replacement number( since we had a ‘blanket’ warranty from The Brick )and was told that the lamp was NOT covered under the warranty, so we could arrange to pay $200.00 for a technician to come out and replace it... the labour was covered, but I was incensed that such a fragile part would last barely 2 years, fail and then render the warranty useless for another year longer. So I’m looking at getting something else... as well as writing letters to quite a few places to talk about Full Disclosure at Time of Sale. Blackguards!

May 1 – Putting a Foot Down Badly

This morning was crazy: I had to drive my dad to the hospital for 7am after he awoke to find his foot swollen to twice it’s size and a bright red colour – VERY SCARY. I had to leave him there for my mom to tend to as I worked at 8am at a Victoria store, covering as usual until 2pm to make our schedules function – it’s the last time I’ll have to do that for the foreseeable future with our new hires coming fully online in the next few weeks. I was worried for hours until my mom called with the news that it was an infection that they could deal with, and were sending him home after treating him with massive doses of several medications. By the time I got home around 3pm, his foot had shrunken almost back to normal size and had gone down to being merely slightly pink, he was resting comfortably in the sun lounge we’ve set up that overlooks the golf course. Cellulitis, as it turns out, is a damned serious thing and it was wise of us to take my dad into the hospital when we did.

It’s a new month in a new place, with a branch for me to manage... heck, it’s all kinds of new for me! Damned busy though; looking back at my schedules, I realized today that my last day off was April 2^nd... a month ago. Add the move in mid-April to that and there’s good reason for the raccoon eyes I’ve been sporting lately, along with the weight loss. Thankfully, my next day off is coming up on May 6^th so it’s not TOO far away... and I can really use it.

May 2 – Is Hoguetastic Better than Slave Leias?

Booyah – the next episode of Newt and John is up tonight! Thanks Mike – go check it out, people! Yet I’m torn between keeping an eye on the duo’s antics and continuing to watch this amazing car wash video... why the heck didn’t I ever hear of anyone doing a themed car wash before today? Sheesh.

Today I expected it to be busy at work, and it was – I gave the other staff the day off to rest up after their long hauls and trials of the last few months before starting fresh in May. Good for them, not so good for me getting anything done, what with the continuous stream of people through the door. Which was good for keeping the store open, so I really can’t complain. I hunkered down at home, watched most of Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen on The Movie Channel while trying not to wince – good thing I didn’t get around to pay to see it in theatres. That was followed by Doomsday, a 2008 romp along the lines of Mad Max but starring Rhona Mitra, who reminds me of Kate Beckinsale somewhat. Anyway, all good things to distract oneself whilst writing a blog

This week should be the last one where I work more than 5 days, so I’ll be getting some rest and days off very shortly. Meaning I can take some time for myself to do things I want to( like write )and not just try to unwind and keep up with events every day after work. That’ll be very, very nice. As are all the Comments on the blog of late – love to see your verbal  activity, folks!

Lego, Long Days and Lassitude

The word of the week is ... fulcrum.

April 19 – Deer Me

There are a LOT of deer here on the mountain around our new condo – they come out at night( vampire deer? )to chow down on the lovely green grassy lawns that line the boulevard. Plus they are completely unafraid of cars, people, bikes or other signs of civilization; I saw a pedestrian jogger trot right between three deer making a meal of well-trimmed grass with no reaction whatsoever. It does make it somewhat hairy when driving at night, as the curves of the road mean you see them by the roadside with less warning... but they’re so darn cute!

What kind of accent do you have? I remember coming across a similar test to this one years ago that had a broader base than American Accents, but the link seems to have vanished( or was mis-named? ). In any case, I took the above test and have a ‘Midlands’ accent, which I think is fairly accurate – you really have to think about HOW you pronounce your words to make the test worthwhile in its results.

April 20 – Mobster Books

The Victoria area was on the lookout for a mobster this week... who loves books, so the FBI alert went out to all local area bookstores. Who knew that loving literature could be dangerous, when I could have found myself in the middle of a police takedown while browsing used books? Weird stuff.

So far, so good with my new glasses: they’re the most solid pair I’ve had, despite a weekend oopsie with the nosepiece that had them digging into my nose until I had time to get it replaced for free today at Wal-Mart. Kind of like acupuncture for the mornings, kept me awake though the red mark will take a little while to fade.

April 21 – Sith Stories

I’ve been slowly working on my stories bit by bit since the summer, as time permits... and even when it didn’t. So far, so little... but thankfully the new condo provides ample space and scenery for productive inspiration. Once I have the work schedule ironed out and don’t have to do overtime every week just to make things work, I hope to take time off to allow my Muse to stop suffocating and start producing again.

All right, there’s a guy who dresses up as Darth Vader and plays the violin for tourists here in Victoria, but I had no idea that the Big Bad Sith had his own Facebook page... of a sorts. Hilarious though!

April 22 - Seeing The Fake City

I may take a vacation in coming years in.... Minnesota? That’s right: go visit the site for Mankato MN, which boasts an underwater city for scuba divers and natural hot springs.... ahem. I should mention that this site has been fooling tourists since 1996, which I find both amusing and frightening.

I loved Lego as a kid( and still do, but have no time or true talent for it )so when I found out that Super Lego Spaceship designer Nate Nielson had passed on from an accident, I was saddened. His was a prolific creative genius expressed in elegant, unique and creative designs, any single one of which I would have been insufferably proud to have come up with myself. Check out Nnenn’s Flicker stream and see for yourself how he took the simple Lego brick to new levels of Sci-fi wonderment.

April 23 – More Work, More Play

It’s official today: I’ll be taking over the Colwood store in addition to running the Millstream branch, which means there is a light at the end of the tunnel... and it’s focused on more paperwork. Still, I’ll have the right amount of staff to handle things and so be able to schedule time off for everyone with no overtime necessary – that’s a godsend in itself. Spending one day a week at Millstream managing things and the rest of the time returning Colwood to a high-revenue branch again will take some doing, but I’m familiar with the strengths of both branches and am confident in the team I’ve assembled for the task. What’s really motivating me is the opportunity to schedule two days off in a row for myself sometime soon....!

What’s this? A radical motorcycle suit... in the style of the Xmen suits from X2: X-Men United?? Now that’s just darn cool... expensive as hell and looks like crap after you take a spill on asphalt, but still – it’d make a helluva Halloween costume. Apparently Universal Designs is also working on an Iron Man suit too ... they’re releasing both by the middle of next month, so check their website for pics then.

April 24 – Doomsday USB

Today was Day 6 of 7, when I had the pleasure of working 13 hours between two stores due to staff shortages – bleh. Thankfully I had the energy during the day to manage it, as it wasn’t that busy at either location downtown( yesterday was Zoo Day, so I missed it – for once! )but by the end of the night I had to hit the hay early as I simply ran down like a pocketwatch someone had forgotten to wind. Ouch.

Like Futurama’s Professor Farnsworth, I have a penchant for Doomsday Devices... but I’ve had neither the funds to have teams of mad scientists create them nor the space to store them. Thank goodness someone has come up with a desktop version that anyone can order online – thanks, ThinkGeek!

April 25 – Facial Hair

I’ve had a beard for over a decade now, mostly in the shape of a goatee, but I’ve never thought about how it compared to other beard shapes all that much. Someone else has, so I present to you: The Trustworthiness of Beards Chart – mine is three from the left, so I am apparently Very Trustworthy.

It definitely felt like a Sunday at work today at Colwood( and it was my first there as manager )in that it was slow but steady. I got a lot of things organized for the coming week( we’re not fully staffed until early May )but by day’s end I was drained. The evening saw me work on getting things squared away at the condo; for the most part everything is in place save my stuff, which I prefer to do myself. Not tonight though; by 10pm my battery was zoned and I passed out waiting for an episode of The Venture Brothers to show up on TeleToon Retro... erk.

All for now... a Monday AM update and then off to work for 10 hours, my last of those shifts at Millstream, finally.

Moved, Microsoft and Marathons

The word of the week is tuckered... yes indeedy.

April 12 – Running for the Force

Terry Fox – it was 30 years ago today he began his run across the country, destined to never finish it. You know the story, which I still find incredible... to take on such a huge challenge and find the nation behind you by its end still resonates with me today. Terry will live on in Canadian’s hearts forever.

What is ‘Star Wars Uncut” you ask? It’s a scene-by-scene recreation of the original feature film, created from over 500 clips submitted by literally hundreds of people. Have a look below...

April 13 – Forever Clocks

Urban legends: they bother me sometimes, like when rumour trumps fact in people’s minds. Such is the case with Tommy Hilfiger, whom last week my co-worker assured me had been on Oprah and announced to the world that he was... er, racist? Sceptical as I was, I was willing to take the statement at face value at first, but then the logical side of my brain kicked in and I found out the truth online. So I encourage everyone to check things out for themselves first, and don’t give rumour a chance to set in.

Stories like that classic The Time Machine and others concerned with humanity’s longevity on earth have always fascinated me. What will life be like a thousand years from  now? A hundred thousand? A million? Well, some of the same people who have thought along those lines have created the Clock of the Long Now, designed to tell time for 10,000 years. Imagine that: something designed to last twice as long as the great pyramids have stood, keeping time accurately the whole while without succumbing to age of decay – pretty cool stuff. You can see another photo of the Clock’s mission statement here.

April 14 – Moving Minus One

I was off work around 3pm, heading home to spend the next 11 hours finalizing the packing for the move. There are still a ton of things to organize, pack and get ready for tomorrow; we’re taking boxes and smaller things to the storage facility as well as the condo storage site so as to make less for the movers to deal with. As it is, they’ll have their work cut out for them to make the 4pm deadline for us to be done the move by... which is later than the standard 1pm given to most tenants, I have to say. I went to bed very, very tired but also excited to have this all behind me by the end of the day tomorrow.

Today was a day the world slowed down a bit, with the massive eruption of an Icelandic volcano. The ash cloud that spewed into the atmosphere brought air travel to many parts of the world to a halt due to the danger posed to aircraft engines if ash were to be sucked in. With over 60,000 flights cancelled this is somewhat similar to the oil price spike of 2008, which saw several airlines go under. Glad I’m not in need of world travel right now... or have to pronounce the name of the volcano: Eyjafjallajokul !

April 15 – Moving Day

Up at 6am to get a few last things in order before the movers arrived a little after 8am. We had three guys and their largest panel truck, who went to work right away getting the heavy stuff organized. I made a few trips to the storage unit while the truck was loading; they were on their way to the condo a little before 11am. By then I was cleaning the house in preparation for the inspection report; that took a while, but I can honestly say we left it cleaner than it was when we moved in. Empty too, for that matter. I won’t miss the house as much as the views it had over the lake, as well as the location – walking to work in 20 minutes is nothing to be sneezed at, especially if you’re on a lazy back street. The place had its share of problems, including an almost total lack of insulation, but I’m glad I had the chance to live there to experience what I did in that kind of house. Glad too that I didn’t buy the place; I’m renting for now at the new condo, and making myself wiser in the field of condo ownership. Maybe.

Today’s the Income Tax deadline in the States, when people are panicking close to the wire in order to file without penalties. I thought I would mention it, as our own Canadian deadline is a more sensible April 30th. Have you filed yours yet?

April 16 - Recovery

Wow, talk about tired... I know I was tuckered after the last move, but this one really put the whammy on me. I was moving at breakneck speed the whole time non-stop to make sure everything got done – and it did – but I paid the price today in feeling like I had someone’s thumbs digging into my eyesockets all day at work. I spent my evening slowly recovering as I continued to unpack, as well as move things from the storage area below as need be. I think this place will be fantastic for me once I’m settled in, as I have a lot more privacy and so more ability to do things like write, podcast and generally relax quietly.

Good gosh – Microsoft doing something to help its users fix their computers – for free? It was announced this week that MS is releasing Windows Fix It Center into beta-testing this week, allowing users of WinXP and Vista to access some of the repair functions of Win7. Now, if they could just fix this blasted memory issue with MY copy of Win7 and not force me to pay fifty bucks USD for ten minutes of support time out of warranty... only 90 days free support from Microsoft is a slap in the face, folks. Ouch.

April 17 – Paint It Red

Downtown was the place to work today, as I filled in my usual 6^th day of work for the week helping them out. Looks like we’re short a few managers in the area for a while, so I’ll be picking up the slack( along with 2 other managers )by running two stores at a time until we get a solution in place. Good for the paycheque( to a point )but lousy for the stress levels and for feeling like you have energy at the end of the day. Fortunately I didn’t have any crazy a-holes walk into the store today, which was a surprise – usually there’s at least one “My damn glass is half-empty so I want a new one AND a refill free!” type who makes life less better for staffers. Again, I wish our tiger pit button wasn’t broken currently...

We’ve been painting the place for the last week, and it continues today as well – there’s no way I’m able to budget professional painters to make the odd off-white colours in here a memory, so we’re doing it ourselves. It’s looking really fantastic now that most of the second coats are done, and we’re hoping that by tomorrow everything can be finally put into place once the paint’s had a chance to dry. Hooray!

April 18 – No Day Off

Today saw the release of a new comic story for Newt and John! Stop reading this blog and go view it now!

After a bit of morning gaming, most of my afternoon was spent moving furniture around and then unpacking boxes to put more things away. Not that exciting, but it was good to see things go from storage disaster to a place resembling a home again. I had the internet and TV’s hooked up early on the 16^th before work too; I was surprised that it went so smoothly, to be honest – no glitches at all.  One little bonus: I can easily watch my 42” TV from my very own soaker bathtub – how cool is that? I’d have been happy with a simple shower stall, but this place is fairly well tricked out, even down to the two dozen expensive and short-lived halogen lights in the ceiling – which we won’t be using much, as there’s a ton of light from the many well-insulated windows. Huzzah!

No afterword this week – need sleep. G’night!