Routers, Rain and RIP

The word of the week is argh, with all its various spellings.

Nov 22 – 12 Hours At Work

Argh – more snow! I opened the branch today and by noon blinding white flurries were creating havoc on the roads. Neither one of my employees could safely make it to work even by mid-afternoon, so I ended up spending 12 hours in-branch from open to close. Luckily my car had its tire chains added, so I could safely make it back home up the mountain tonight – no hotels for me. Did you know that regular tire chains limit your speed to no more than 50kph, making the car vibrate like you’re riding continuously over rumble strips? No? Well, they do – I hadn’t considered that, but it’s a safety trade-off I was willing to make. Especially when I watched two impatient morons in large pickups pass me at high speed... and both of them started sliding. Idiots In Trucks – there has to be an IQ cap to own one.

For those of you wondering about my recent FBook status updates involving stew, here’s a brief explanation. Stew is a metaphor for a few things: a hot bubbling mix of different things, usually yummy, that also has the possibility of going bad despite best intents. Stew can also stand for Stressfully Taxing Emotional Weirdness, which is also appropriate. Given that the holidays are usually a stressful time of year, I’m not surprised that I’m feeling it... but I hope( hope! )that the new year will bring some relief. It’s not nearly as bad in some ways for my parents and I as it could have been this month and next, so for that I’m grateful – I’ve just switched my stress focus, I guess, and have to deal.

Nov 23 – Boxxes And Wimmin

The jury’s still out on the Boxee Box – it’s a great idea with very little goodness out of the box for Canadian owners, if you’ll pardon the comparative pun. I’m not convinced it’s my answer to my media needs, so I’m still looking to price out a nice media server in the new year. Windows Home Server’s still looking like the winner, but I may run Boxee’s software on the thing. I wouldn’t be so eagar, but since my HDMI port on the laptop seems to have died along with 2 of the 3 USB ports, there’s not a lot of cheap options to stream media right now from my still-cool laptop. Well, it’s cool-looking, but it runs hot. You get the idea.

I use MSN for communicating with a good number of my NWN friends, and the thing pops up an advert every time I connect listing the ‘top stories’ at MSN.ca – good and bad. For the most part, it seems to be journalistic pap, much of the kind you find glaring at you while standing at the supermarket checkout. Case in point is this article about The 12 Types of Single Women, which caught my eye as I thought “Hey, here’s something perhaps I don’t know.” Turns out I shouldn’t have bothered; have a read and let me know what you think – the article entitled Ten Things To Know Before You Get Engaged is a lot better, IMHO, though still somewhat derivative. My fave? Check out the quote from Lucille Ball – right on!

Nov 24 – My Juice Tastes Like Bullets

Aw, man... another of my childhood memories tarnished. Or in this case, leaded. Those collectible glasses that Burger King and other fast food outlets put out in for Star Wars and the Muppets are just packed full of lead. It doesn’t stop there: according to the article, pretty much every collectible glass made in the last 50 years has toxic levels of lead and cadmium in them. I guess it’s a good thing I didn’t end up holding onto them; makes me wonder if they’ll be cheaper now on eBay? Hmmm.

At my day job, I deal with more than my share of fraud-related things, including quite a few people who come in who are being duped by internet scammers. I do what I can to help them and educate them to ensure they don’t fall victim to the international scumbags running the scams, but people just keep naively believing the damnedest concocted stories. So I was glad to stumble across a site that strikes back at the scammers: 419eater.com, where users post their scam-the-scammer stories. My favourites? The one were a savvy user scammed a scammer into carving a full-size wooden Commodore64 , and the one where the scamming scumbag gets a tattoo – with the 419eater’s usename on it! Hilarious!

Nov 25 – Cookies, not Stew

Well, well, what’s this? A day off, despite other stores calling me( evil magic, that )to see if I can work? No can do; I need my day off – spent at home, as it snowed a LOT last night( and kept doing it today )so I wasn’t going anywhere unnecessary. It was well-spent on Things Relaxing, such as COD: Black Ops( which I was royally smacked around at, ah well )and writing a bit, plus the traditional trip to the Mountain Bean. Which was really great, as I spent a couple of quiet hours parked in front of the giant stone fireplace with tea and cookies at hand. Plus some football game or somesuch on the giant TV that I ignored. The evening was a bit of a letdown, as I stewed( just a bit )on the topics of Life Fail, Love Fail and Work Fail but came to no real conclusions. Apart from realizing that more cookies CAN make things better, but only in the short-term. Maybe I should make some bacon cookies soon?

A bit of nostalgia, then a bit of Way Cool: remember Hot Wheels, those semi-indestructible die-cast toy cars? Of course you do – we all had a few of them; some had more than a few. This guy has 1200 of them, and he’s made an incredible automated work of art of all those cars in continuous motion. Mesmerizing! Plus, in my books, a whole lot cooler than turning your basement into a giant train set. Enjoy:

Nov 26 – Futurama and Fone Fury

Telus: a phone company who apparently can’t master the complicated art of a three-way call, which has only been around for a few decades now( they kept disconnecting me ). I called today to return my LG IQ phone, as I’m extremely disappointed with it – the Windows Mobile 6.5 OS stinks. I’ve had to pull the battery from the thing 5 times now as it won’t shut down / reset; I can’t connect to the WiFi any more( despite it working fine, if slowly, early in the week ); the battery life is marginal... and it’s just darn hard to get a grip on. In the main, the OS is the deal-breaker, as I’m flabbergasted that LG would release a product with such obvious glitches. Anyway... they’re sending a mailer to me to pack the LG IQ in to send it back. I’ll be re-activating my old LG Shine for the foreseeable future( under the new monthly plan, which is fine )as Telus won’t cut me a deal for the HTC Desire. There’s no way I’m going to pony up $350.00 to get a phone for a 2-year contract – I’m definitely going to wait for a tablet, however long that takes. Even shopping on eBay 6 months from now probably won’t get me a much better price... but it’s the principle of the thing. For the amount of time I'll use it, I want a free phone on a long-term contract or no deal.

All right, time to damp the phone fury and turn back to the funny. In case you’ve been missing it, Futurama’s sixth season is available to watch FOR FREE from GoodnewsFuturama.com – just pick your episodic poison, max the window and enjoy every animated moment of Groening goodness. Ahhh....

Nov 27 – Routing Cars and Data

Good news, everyone – well, everyone who gets stuck in traffic around here near Victoria. After years( and years )of talk, word has come down that the BC Government has earmarked a whopping 500 million bucks for rapid transit systems outside the Lower Mainland( ie. Vancouver & area ). So Victoria should get a good share of that to put towards ironing out the snarled mess that Highway 1 turns twice a weekday. They also mention overpasses, which we really don’t have here – unlike the QEW in Ontario, which has overpasses everywhere to keep the traffic flowing uninterrupted on the highway. Only makes sense, right?

Argh!!! Does that express it? Dead routers SUCK, but wonky ones are just as bad: neither one lets your data stream smoothly at home. I was gaming on the Xbox tonight and noticed a LOT of lag, so I logged into my D-Link DIR-655... and lost the internet. Hours later I gave up trying to fix it and plugged in my old Linksys WRT54G, which has been smoothly running my Vonage VOIP line for years – still works great. I’ll be trying to diagnose things on my next day off, but I suspect some lingering problems I’ve been having with the 655 router are signs that a new router is in the cards. The speed I had expected from the 655 never materialized, and the setup was somewhat of a nightmare to get everything talking. So we’ll see when this ends up, and when – not that I’m thrilled about spending more money I didn’t want to... I’ll see if a firmware update fixes things.

Nov 28 – Farewell, Leslie Nielsen

One of my favourite actors passed away today: Leslie Neilsen, best known for his starring role in the Naked Gun movie series. He was also in one of my favourite movies of all time very early in his career: Forbidden Planet, a film that has influenced science fiction since its release decades ago. I’ve always enjoyed films with Leslie in them; he brought charm, humour and dignity to roles that nobody else could have pulled off. I’ll miss him more than I realized, but he’ll live on in the roles that he played so well on screen.

It’s cold outside, it’s dark... but at least it’s raining! Yes, the forecast here for Vancouver Island( at least the southern bits )is a return to normal temperatures starting tomorrow – goodbye, snow! Despite doom-and-gloomers saying it’s going to be the coldest winter in decades, I’m just looking forward to the rain – check out some of the amazing facts about Victoria’s mild weather here. The rainiest month is December, and the driest is July... with very little snow in between. Sounds perfect to me!

Next week? Rain. I’ve learned to like it a lot – you don’t have to shovel it, or slide on skates over it.

Snow, Sanity and Sales

The word of the week is aimless.

 Nov 15 – Interesting Love Ages

Falling in love has been on my mind of late( unsurprisingly )as has the vagaries of the relationships that we sometimes take for granted that form the fabric of our lives. Friends, family, co-workers... if not for these varied social webs that weave our lives, where would we be but ships passing each other in aimless circles on the sea of life? I remember visiting my great-grandmother at her care home in her last years when I was in high school, and being stuck by the aimlessness of age. Most of one’s accomplishments( and failures )are behind you, your children( if you had any )are grown, and a fair number of your peers have already passed on. Are you marking time, or making the most of it? Similar to a mid-life crisis, when one realizes that younger folks are able to perform better in sports, rise faster in a career path or other such troubling things. A healthy body AND a healthy mind are the twin pillars to support oneself throughout life – have a look at  Longevity-And-Antiaging-Secrets.com’s emotional health section for some interesting points on the subject.

How interesting are you? How do you measure such things, anyway? I found a quiz on BlogThings.com that was somewhat informative, and a different one over at OKCupid.com, but there doesn’t seem to be any consensus out there. Being a nice person isn’t the same as being Interesting; quiet people and extroverts can both be dull in different ways to different people. I suppose you can use the idiom ‘Like Finds Like’  ( which Googles some random results, by the by )in that people of similar interests, attitudes and personalities tend to gravitate towards one another. Opposites attract too, but I can’t think of anyone I know who is so unlike myself in several ways as to be grating on each other’s nerves. Not a one. Can you?

Nov 16 – Wind and Houses

What a windstorm! The winds were howling all day, but in the evening they really picked up – I could hear the howl through the armoured glass inside, so it was real nasty out there for sure. Not being able to see much after dark didn’t help, but the few folks who ventured in said it was terrible. I finished my shift around dinner time, got in my car and drove out of the lot... just as the power for the entire area failed. Perfect timing. So I turned around and went back into the store to help my new CSR close things up, as I’ve done this sort of thing before. Made my shift 10.5 hours thereabouts, but we managed to get everything important done and closed off for the day, thanks to my creative use of a UPS battery backup and flashlights – the emergency lights failed at 3mins and the second at 30 mins, respectively. Overall we worked over an hour and a half in the dark, to ensure that the morning staffer didn’t have a hairy trying to take care of things – also we didn’t know if the power would be on by then, either. A meh day all in all.

I don’t know what it is, but I just can’t get the idea of tiny houses out of my head. Which is odd, as I still have a moderate amount of Stuff that I consider Good For My Lifestyle( apart from a bed, tv, bookshelves, clothes, etc ). A bachelor apartment might be just the ticket for me, if I can’t find a good spot to build a small house – one guy in Japan just built his new tiny home on a lot the size of a parking spot. Cost him a cool half-million dollars, and he still lives with his mom... neither of them good options for me. I’m thinking something in a corner of a city somewhere, away from noise, most people and close to Quiet Places To Write, Ponder and Just Be. Not too much to ask, really.

Nov 17 – New Cell and New COD Game!

Lots of phone calls today, to hither and yon and back again – what else are days off for? The main thing I did was to call Telus and confirm the rate plan I was getting a deal on was actually a deal, point by point. I did this by comparing it to a corporate rate plan through work that I found out about yesterday( it pays to ask! )and as it stood, the deal directly from Telus was better in that I get 1gb of data download per month( trackable on the Telus website so I don’t go over )and 300 minutes a month, on top of a Fave Five listing. Seeing as I don’t make all that many local calls beyond about 5 numbers, this makes more than the usual amount of sense, especially for $50.00 a month, even on a contract. Add a work phone to the mix for all my work-related calls and my cell costs are well under control, even given all the new features that the LG IQ has to offer. Now if I can just get the email program to stop copying me on everything I send, I’ll be much less confused... good ol’ Microsoft Windows at work again.

Oh, and I bought Call Of Duty: Black Ops today for the Xbox 360 – the game uses the Cold War over the period of several decades as a setting for guns-blazing goodness. I wasn’t thrilled with the $70 price tag after taxes, but if that’s the price one has to pay for gaming with one’s friends, then that’s what I pay. Lucas showed me a few Easter Eggs in the game, consisting of several mini-games within the game that are accessible from the main menu – cool and thanks! The game itself took me a few hours to get used to, getting my butt handed to me for a few games until I adjusted to the ‘new’ weapons. After that I started to hold my own, but faded again as I tired... seems to be happening to me more lately, so I need more exercise and more light therapy to cancel out the cloudy gloom that has hovered here in BC for the last few weeks. Definitely affecting my mood, maybe a mild case of SAD... bleh.

Nov 18 – Fbook Friends And Cars

Yesterday was National Unfriend Day, as posited by Jimmy Kimmel – I’m happy to say that it doesn’t look like anyone on my Friends List noticed, as I’ve gained a few friends this week. Always good. For those folks who have hundreds and hundreds of friends on their FBook lists, perhaps a little pruning would help. A recent study found that the average person has about 150 people in their social circle – the entire circle, including family. That may not seem like a lot, but have a look at the study. I recall reading years ago in the Toronto Star a study that said on average, a person will meet thousands of people( depending on their profession, etc )and about 1,000 of those people will become friends of some sort. Which means that, according to the ‘150 study’ that out of every ten people you become friends with, you’ll only keep one... no mention of how long a friendship lasts, or other data that is essentially unrelated between individuals. Makes you think about People You Know vs. Friends You Know and the difference between the two. Myself, I prefer Friends – definitely.

Out of habit, I’ve worked on a new budget to see what things would be affordable when I’m out on my own again... as well as figuring out when that will best be made to happen. Right now, if I went out on my own, I’d be without a car but otherwise... decent, financially. No frills, no major purchases and no weekly trips to Vancouver, but it’s within the realm of possibility. However, the budget doesn’t allow for any major repayment of debts... so I’m forced to concede that if I want to be on my own with minimal financial stress, I’ll still have to wait a while, or find a much better-paying job. The latter sounds like the better option, so I’ll be actively looking for the foreseeable future as work is annoying me more each week. Not having a vehicle to myself complicates things some days, but still doable – I managed while I was in the city of Victoria proper, and I can do so again if need be.

Nov 19 – Traffic Jams and Starbucks Solo

Ergh... an early, early day today: up at 6am and on the road for a 7am doctor’s appointment( flu shot, among other things ). Even at this ungodly hour, the volume on the TransCanada southbound was packed; it was just light enough to keep flowing smoothly but I’d hate to be on it again in less than an hour. Coming back, it was indeed a ribbon of headlights stretching for 15 km all the way back to where I started onto the highway an hour previous – why do people do that to themselves every day? I’d go bonkers after a week of sitting in my car, inching along at 15km / hr knowing that in a few hours time the highway would be wide open again. Almost all single-passenger vehicles too; car pool, people!

Anyway... due to my own car constraints, I was dropped off 3 hours early for work at a Starbuck’s down the road( there’s no transit on Bear Mountain, as I’ve said ). I sat and shopped online, looking at inexpensive things that I’ve sort of wanted and sort of needed for a while now; my budgetary constraints have meant that I now continuously think of the cheapest way to get something. If I can’t get it for a great( not even good )price, I do without – wait for a sale, keep checking prices weekly, check on eBay. Keeps me busy... yet my bargaining skills are not on the same level of my co-worker, who managed to talk a FutureShop manager into selling an $800.00 open-box camera for ... $80.00. Yes, 90% off – I have YET to discover how he pulled THAT one off, as he doesn’t know the guy and isn’t a psychic.

Nov 20 – Snow and Bacon Seltzer

Snow, snow and more snow... living on a mountain north of Victoria has its downsides sometimes, and today was an example. It started snowing last night: big wet flakes that kept on coming, turning the roads into rinks – Victoria itself simply got chunky rain, no white stuff, per usual. I barely made it up the mountain, edging past a dozen other cars that had given up to wait in hope for a sander – my tire cables ordered weeks ago failed to arrive as promised today. My winter experience in ON got me home, but I stayed in this morning until things were properly cleared by noon. My dad had to get a hotel in Victoria last night, as it was too dangerous to even try to get down the mountain to pick him up from work.

Over the last few months, you may have noticed a dearth of bacony goodness: this has been intentional. I’ve mentioned quite a few Things Bacon over the years in the blog( go ahead, search for them! )so I’ve cut back a little. However, every once in a while something really new and cool rears its Bacon-related head and I toss it into the blog. This time, it’s Effervescent Bacon Tablets that let you add bacon flavour to ANY drink. Good for times when plain water just isn’t enough, or when milk needs a bacony kick!

Nov 21 – COD, Sucks and Sales

You guessed it: hours of Call Of Duty today until the early afternoon, when I just slumped onto a bed to try and rid myself of a sudden-onset migraine. I managed to work it down to a mild head-pounding ache by dinnertime, thanks to the miracle of ibuprofen tablets and earplugs. Before I went over to the Mountain Bean for a before-dinner tea and cookie( yum! )I picked up my parent’s Christmas gift to themselves: a new vacuum cleaner from Future Shop. My dad’s been having problems using the inexpensive-thus-very-heavy Dirt Devil we’ve had for a few years, so I soused out a $100-off deal online last night, did a new budget and concluded they could afford it. It was incredibly easy to assemble, extremely lightweight and it sucked big time – I think the Dirt Devil will be crying in the closet corner from now on.

Instead of ending the blog this week with another diatribe on my emotional yo-yo-ness of late, I thought I’d mention that I managed to resist purchasing a Very Cool Gadget, on SALE no less! I’ve mentioned before that I’d really like to get an Android tablet like the Samsung Galaxy, but that I want to wait until the market stabilizes AND the prices drop to reasonable levels. Well, there’s an alternative in the meantime: take an e-book reader like the PanDigital Tablet( colour display and WiFi )and hack it into an Android tablet. Considering that FutureShop had one on sale tonight for $150 before taxes, I was sorely tempted... but I still can’t think of a GOOD reason to have a non-phone-capable tablet right now apart from that it’s Very Cool. So tempting though... but I have enough to do without spending hours on trying to figure out how to hack the thing. *sigh* I spent a happy few hours after dinner gaming on the Primordia Nordock NWN server... just like old times.

The new cell phone is cool, lots of features... but it’s slippery; I’ve dropped it three times now, fortunately in each case not far. Cases are apparently rather rare for it, so the hunt is on. An early night Sunday for me too – my head is killing me.

Feet, Fems and Fancy Phones

The word of the week is empty.

Nov 8 -  My Left Foot

Some things will never make it into this blog, most of them very personal things that many of you already know about and some things that just aren’t appropriate( or interesting enough )for the world to know about. I’ve considered closing off this blog, if I could figure out a way to transfer it in its entirety )and posting it solely in the closed group I’ve created elsewhere... we’ll see if that happens. Again, as I’ve said, this is a Journal as much as it is a source of news for friends / family as well as being a place to keep my writing skills sharp... or at least from atrophying.

Hopefully my left foot won’t atrophy either; I managed to trip over my laptop power cable last week, and bent several of my toes back WAY further than they should go. It’s been painful to walk on( duh )and there’s some lingering numbness. I checked with the doctor down at the walk-in clinic today, and while nothing seems broken, he said that it may be a month or two before it’s fully healed. The lesson? Wear socks or slippers all the time if you’re klutzy, as it keeps your toes together in case you trip up...

Nov 9 – No Vacay Days

Yeah, work dragged for me today – surprising, as I thought it would yesterday, so there you are: you never know when life will grab your brain and squeeze. It wasn’t so bad, really, but my heart just wasn’t in it. I have a good crew though; they saw I wasn’t in good shape and took pains to try to cheer me up, which I really appreciated. It makes all the difference when you work with the right people; after all, you’re spending 40 hours a week with them most times, so if you all get along then the week flies by fast. For various reasons, I’m no longer taking a vacation day a week this month to use up my vacation time more quickly before year-end. At this point, I’d rather be working and busy than at home more.

Nov 10 – New Phone 4me

I ‘slept in’ a little today until 7:30am, which was good as I was up until 1-ish for various reasons. Turned out to be a fairly sunny day until mid-afternoon; I spent a good part of that inside making phone calls as I wanted to cancel a few monthly payments for additional insurance and the like that I’ve been carrying for a while now. Now that my parents have finally found their footing, I can cut back on my preparedness in case I was suddenly out of the picture for whatever reason – here in BC, a simple Power of Attorney on file( but not active )is all that is needed instead of a will, for someone like myself without substantial property or investment holdings( yet! ).

One of those calls was to Telus, to broker a deal for a new phone. Yes, after weighing the options and dithering for a few weeks( since my 3-year contract for my LG Shine is up this month )I decided that the LG IQ was the phone for me. This video review( see above! )of the phone cinched it for me, along with the feature set – I plan on adding SPB’s Windows Mobile Shell to the phone should make it a killer replacement. Sure, it’s not Android, but I don’t plan on doing TOO much with it while I wait for the mobile tablet market to shake itself down in the next two years( coincidentally the length of my new Telus contract – sigh ). I got a great deal for my voice / data plan with a lot of options thrown in for not a lot per month, so that makes me happy. Sitting over at the Mountain Bean for a few hours, I simply enjoyed the Me Time I had there and thinking about how much progress tablets will make over the Samsung Galaxy Tab by the time 2013 and my contract starts to wrap up again. Friggin' contracts...

Nov 11 – John Candy Smiles

Today wandered around rather lost; I didn’t end up going anywhere, as I had no plans – it’s a day off. I did this and that, gamed a little, read a little, wrote a little, spent more than a little time under the sun-lamp( s’bright! )and generally tried not to look at the clock. I did catch all of Only The Lonely with John Candy and Ally Sheedy, which had some eerie parallels to my current life in it – strange how that happens with TV movies, no? Later in the day I also commented on a lovely photo Mike posted to FBook – windows peering out of an ivied wall. Somehow a poem popped into my head as I looked at the image, and I quickly scribed it into words on-screen... with only a little editing. My mind words on wondrous ways sometimes, and I need to learn to give myself more time to listen TO myself. And not worry o’ermuch.

Nov 12 – Busy Day, Blasé Night

Dang days keep disappearing on me; today was no different. At least I don’t have to worry about two branches worth of crazy-making now, which makes most days at work bearable... or at least manageable. The cold, early-dark rainy days of this week took a break this afternoon, so we were treated to some hours of sunshine that lifted everyone’s mood, it seems – t’was nice to see! My own mood threatened to waver all over the map though, so I took a firm hand and simply concentrated on work, which was easy today – it was so busy that I stood at the counter for nigh over nine hours straight. I left the branch in good hands and to happy smiles from my staff for staying the course without complaint, though I felt wretched inside – probably something I ate. Yep. I’m not sure where the evening went, but I flaked out after spot-napping through an episode of Batman: The Animated Series, which is on every weeknight at 11pm, so I try not to miss it, even if I’m tired. Sleep was dreamless, and distant.

Nov 13 – Stardust and Dragons

Well, apparently I needed sleep, as I woke up close to 10am – that never happens any more, save on the weekends( someone usually calls from work anyway ). Not today though, which was nice. I posted some questions about various things for a few hours on various websites, then popped an HD-DVD( yes, I lost that battle )of Neil Gaiman’s Stardust in for a nice few hours. Later, I popped over to The Mountain Bean, where I happily talked shop with the manager about strategies for keeping the place hopping in the winter – for some reason they listen to my advice there, which I trade for the occasional cookie. Yum! In the evening, I watched another movie, one I hadn’t yet seen: How To Train Your Dragon. It was fantastic! The story moved fluidly the whole way through, the characters were diverse and interesting, the writing was upbeat and funny in many parts... overall it was a great 90 minutes, well spent! I’d definitely watch it again, and since I bought the Blu-Ray combo-pak, I’ll be able to in Hi-Def... once I get around to purchasing a Blue-Ray player, that is. Not going to be anytime soon, I think, as I don’t want to pay an average of thirty bucks a movie – who the hell would, to create a ‘new’ library of movies they already own? Sheesh.

Nov 14 - Meh

It’s a fairly frustrating place I’m in this week, figuring out a lot of things. I find it horribly amusing that when one problem is no longer an issue( ie. parents retirement )then another one looms suddenly out of the fog just as large and just as stressful – there’s balance for you. I’d kick Fate in the shins if I knew where to look, I swear. I’m taking stock of things, looking to branch out my interests and generally get on with Doing, rather than thinking – thinking’s just making me sullen and angry this week, which isn’t me. Not having much of a social life isn’t helping either – now that I have some time, I’m looking to join a few clubs, see a few places and generally get out more than I have in the last few years. Whee. My mood’s all over the place; good thing I have a lot of practice in emotional control or I’d be a mess. As it stands, I’m posting the blog around dinnertime – I really don’t care what I do the rest of the evening, as I’m feeling very, very down in general. My thoughts are grim, my mood twinned to the dark fingers of the forest poking through the fog all around my mountain home. My future seems to be chained by my past choices, and in all that I can take no comfort in that doing what was necessary has still led me to the solitary path I have been walking for a long, long time.

Meh. Guess I need to become more interesting... no tattoos though.

Update 11pm: A long phone call with my sister( luv ya sis! )put some( not all )things in perspective - simplification helps, as I tend to analyze possibility and causality branches to the nth degree. Which combined with my lack of experience in some matters means I end up spinning in recursive loops. K.I.S.S folks ... and no, I'm not being ironic. I need sleep to let my brain heal and emotions level.

Wow, a dull week that flew by. Maybe things will pick up for me in January. And thanks, Samuel. :-)

Love, Laughter and Levels

The word of the week is... surprised.

Nov 2 -Bearing it

My last day of vacation I took it easy, catching up on some email( only a few work-related to clear space, as they send HUGE files )and generally lazing about. I tried to go over to the Mountain Bean, but they were closed – labour problems, as they’ve been struggling( like all the Bear Mountain businesses )with low traffic levels. The stalled development of the area means that businesses who opened a few years ago anticipating ever-increasing customer flow have had to face up to the fact that things may not improve for years, and so mean their bottom lines may bottom out. I hope this doesn’t happen to the Bean, as I really like having a cafe at my doorstep, similar to the one on May St. ... which ended up closing.

Nov 3 -Seattle Sci-Fi

Back to work today – not much to say about that, apart that I’m proud of my team for keeping things running, even if they missed doing a few things I’d left for them. The fact that I didn’t get a single call on my phone all of last week is proof enough that they’re solid, so props to them for holding on their own. I should really plan another vacation soon, as the Seattle SciFi Museum just scored the ultimate exhibit: The Battlestar Galactica Experience! I don’t know anyone in Seattle, nor know anyone around here who would want to go... so I may end up taking a solo trip just for the halibut. I have higher hopes for this show, as the Star Trek Experience in Buffalo in 1997 was a major letdown overall, aside from the poorly-lit show props. Much cooler is Project Rho, which has real-life star maps pinpointing all the locations from all of one’s favourite SciFi shows – Babylon 5 notwithstanding, it’s a great g33k resource.

Nov 4 –Mean Green Cars

Green is my favourite colour, and some of the car’s I’ve been looking idly at on dealership lots have also coincidentally been green – not slime green though, that’s just crap to look at. Then I saw this fab ad for the Skoda Fabia, and suddenly I saw green in a whole new light, like Hulk Smash Green – that’s cool for a car. I’ve still no idea if I’ll be needing a car in the new year, or where I’ll be by this time next year... out on my own again, I hope, though at this point that’s still a singular experience way out here in BC.

Nov 5 -Minding Media

The jury’s still out on my purchasing a Boxee Box from D-Link, which runs the software you can download for free at Boxee.net. I’m still considering just purchasing a basic PC, as it will have room inside to stick all the hard drives I’ve collected over the years, plus a few new large spacious ones. Having a bunch of external drives all tangled together doesn’t really appeal to me, but for those who only have a couple of large drives, the Boxee Box may be the perfect media solution as it still provides a direct link to the ‘net to let you watch whatever you want on your TV. With a lovely remote that even has a QUERTY keyboard on the back. Media convergence at its best... it may mean that at my new place( whenever that happens )that I won’t bother with cable.. most of what’s on bores me anyway.

Nov 6 -Breakup

Renee broke up with me today.

Nothing else to say about that here. I went to work, then went home. Evening was a wash.

Nov 7 -Photo Shoot

Most of my morning was spent in bed, as I couldn’t seem to muster the energy to do more than have breakfast – even SpongeBob failed to do more than crack a smile. I did get up and over to the Mountain Bean for 11am, where I sat in my favourite window seat for a few idle hours. No story ideas came to mind. It really is beautiful outside, with the trees shining orange and red against the still-green pine trees and the rocks of the mountain. It turned sunny just after lunch, enabling a photographer to make good use of the fall colours in a mini-shoot with a couple of coat-clad coffee-clutching models seated on the benches in the courtyard area outside the Bean. They looked very stylish and well-taken care of. Work was brief and uneventful. Same for the evening.

I’ve created a group in FBook that will contain the links to this updated blog weekly. This will allow me to open up my FBook Status updates to all my friends, including most of those I work with, yet still keep the privacy of this blog to those who are close friends. Even though I don’t put a lot of info here regarding work, I still don’t feel comfortable sharing it with my employees or co-workers locally. There you are.

Warm Hearts and Cold Hands in Niagara

The word of the week is friendship - obviously. Three years in BC as of Nov. 1st.

Oct 25 -Travel Forth

Today started off early – really early: my cell rang at 4:48am. It was a friend from ON jumping the gun, wanting to find out how my day was shaping up to see if we could connect. I wasn’t upset, as I would have been up in a couple of hours anyway... after a few minutes chat, I went back to bed. A few hours after that, we left for the airport, where I found out at the Westjet counter that my standby reservation had been improperly booked – naturally. No problem really, as I simply had to have my boarding pass printed at the Calgary counter – whew! I made my flight with plenty of time to spare, landed in Calgary a little after 4pm local time and met my sister about half an hour after that. We had an hour’s visit, which was lovely – I hadn’t seen her for over 4 months; she’s a busy, busy girl and quite happy in Calgary. My plane left the city a little late at 6:15pm, climbing into the darkening skies and right into a whole lot of cloud cover. I snapped a picture of the post-sunset sky when we moved about that, then set about enjoying the flight with some TV and chatting up my seatmate Dave, who was travelling with his young family. Turns out we’ve both not been on a plane for a year, as well as having similar travel experiences, so it was a pleasant few hours passed in the hum of the darkened plane cabin.

My arrival in Hamilton was low-key but wonderfully warming despite the chilly air: Brian was there to greet me! He looked great and we were happily chatting on the road by 1am, heading back to Niagara. I arrived at Simon’s place before 2am, to tumble into the spare room’s bed... my OWN bed, as it happens. When I moved to BC, Simon was pleased to have my old bed for his spare room, so whenever I have visited it literally is like coming home. How many people can say that they sleep in their own bed when they travel? I’m a lucky man in many ways, and I try to count even the small ones whenever I can...

Oct 26 -Rental Oopsie

A bit of a hiccup this morning: I was at Enterprise car rentals by 9am, but apparently their internal policies aren’t all in sync. When I reserved over the phone from BC, I was told no deposit was necessary... but guess what they wanted when I arrived? Yeah – didn’t budget that, but I did have a reserve set aside for just such silliness... so I had to wait until Wed for that to show on my credit card. So I they dropped me back Simon’s where I unpacked and then walked on down to the A&W on Lake St for a late breakfast – the place was packed with nothing but seniors; I think the grey hair in my goatee let me blend in fairly well. More walking over to the Fairview Mall- the weather was quite warm, so much so that I was sweating after only a short time.

Where else could my first evening back in ON be but @ the Kilt? Lucas picked me up from the Fairview Mall and we were there in a flash for beers and dinner – it was just as cozy as I remembered. Especially as I missed the ambiance for over a year; there’s no place like it... no TV’s blazing sports scores in your face, just good people talking to one another with alcohol and good eats close at hand. Josh and Rene came by, as did others... stellar to see them all so soon! I was back at Simon’s after 9 though, as I was tired and the beers were doing their work.

Oct 27 –Honest Frankie

Ah, breakfast with friends – this time it was at Frego’s on Lake St, with Josh and Rene. The place is new to me, as it’s changed hands quite a few times – is there an app or a website for that? A ‘Google Time Machine’ that lets you pop in an address and see all the places that have ever been situated there? If not, there probably will be one day soon. I had a great time chatting with Josh and Renee over bacon and eggs – the breakfast menu at Frego’s is both large and varied, with tasty dishes to tempt tongues! After breakfast I puttered a bit, then went down to the Falls to visit my good friend Ray at the dealership he runs – I’ve known him since my 21^st birthday and still have the ‘I Am 21!’ pin he and his wife gave me that day. I spent a happy few hours out in the afternoon sun, watching leaves swirl around the cars and trying in vain to spot a cloud in the perfect blue sky. It was a blessed way to spend time with a friend.

The evening saw me at The Kilt for 8, where a ton of people showed up – amazing! It was Honest Frankie’s night to play, which I didn’t want to miss for the world, despite my usual flubbing in asking for songs... though I DID manage to get the request for ‘The Scotsman’ correct! Lucas, Katie, Brian, Mike, Dan, Shawna, Nigel, Rene and Josh all came... and if I’m forgetting anyone, please let me know! It was as if I’d never left – the songs, the people and the warm laughter all went straight to my heart as if to tweak it a little, reminding me of what I had left behind, by choice... hard as it was. The beers did nothing to my head either, for which I was grateful indeed; I’d been afraid that my total teetotaler lifestyle in the past year would rebound on me this week, but my head remained in perfect peak condition. It was well after midnight when I headed out, well-sated with the smiles and shared stories of friends.

Oct 28 -Steebs and Co-Worker Catchup

After an A&W breakfast( coupons! )the early afternoon saw me ensconced at Starbuck’s on Lake St. with Dan and later the redoubtable Mike. The place is new, being much larger and less busy-people-packed than the Fairview Mall. Large tables and tons of power outlets make for laptop-friendly latte sipping, as does the free WiFi. Now, you should ALWAYS have your WiFi network secured, that’s common sense – C|Net just had a GREAT article about all the horrible things that might happen if you don’t lock the wireless door. Scary stuff, people. Same goes for FireSheep, which makes sitting at a Starbuck’s( like today! )a far more creepy experience and NOT in a good way. That someone could hijack my web browsing session so easily on an unsecured public network like Starbuck’s makes me think that the pendulum is going to swing the other way again towards people paying for secure logins on public places, just to be sure their data is kept private.

Dinner was at Patrick Sheehan’s with Jen, Rose and Jackie all of MMart fame – only one of them still works for the company. I was thrilled that they were all able to come out for a few hours, which we spent blissfully catching up. Again I was struck by how fortunate I’ve been to work with so many wonderful people, that we could remain in touch despite the years and distance between us. I was happy to hear that all of them were doing well, pursuing their interests and living life generally as they wanted to – not everyone I know can say that. The best news was that one of them was expecting in about 5 months, so perhaps by the time of my next visit there will be one more reason to gather!

Oct 29 -Friday Friends

Breakfast was at the Sunrise Cafe with Matt L2K; the place was as busy as I remember but we snagged a table fairly quickly. I simply had the Sunrise Special, as I was eating fairly soon again. We talked for a bit about life and work and how the two can really get tangled up sometimes... but he’s got his head on right with some recent changes he’s made – I’m a little jealous. Damned good to see him though! I was visiting relatives for the afternoon, first at a face spot of mine on Martindale Rd for lunch, then off to Grimsby and then Hamilton for a visit with my aunt and uncle. It was stellar; he’s having some age-related issues but we all spent a happy few hours visiting together, remembering shared family memories and talking about their last visit to Victoria. It was worth the trip back to ON just for that.


In the evening, I went to the Kilt with Josh and Rene( thanks for taking the time from night shifts, guys! )to sit in the Video Booth – it has a video picture frame loaded with images of Kilt Days Gone By, including a disproportionate number of de-kilting events. Our most animated discourse was over the D&D campaign I ran for four years back in university, which saw Josh’s character Zartan miraculously survive all the way through – the only one with the unique distinction, I should add. I still have copious notes from the campaign, all dated, so I really should get back to putting them into story form. I’ve tried several times to try to get the narrative POV correct, but only written about 40,000 words before it goes all squidgy. I’m certain there’s an entire novel in those pages, so given the joy I saw in their faces as we recalled magical moments from the campaign, I will have to give writing it another shot as soon as I can.

Aside: I should mention that the jet lag I’ve been expecting hasn’t surfaced, as one of the great things about coming back to ON is that my body clock is 3 hours ahead of the game. So I’ve got that working for me... and as I’ve already said, the relatively large number of beers this week have done nothing at all to my head, something for which I’ll have to thank the Beer Gods for when I get back to BC. Same goes for the Weather Gods, as the first two days in Niagara were both warm AND sunny. Later in the week things clouded over and went rather chilly, as though snow was moving in... but no major rainstorms or snowfall showed up and by the end of the weekend the sun was again brilliant in a lovely blue sky. Strangely, my hands have been cold all week, so I'm glad I brought my gloves along.

Oct 30 -Wonton Soup

A bit of a lazy morning, with another Grey Power Breakfast at the A&W... then a lovely lunch at The Feathery with Jason and Ruth-Ann, whose wedding I was at two years ago in Niagara( see the blog on that! ). We enjoyed some fine food there, in a setting reminiscent of an old English pub... but with more windows and less squishy bits underfoot. Jay showed me his very swish Samsung Galaxy tablet... well, the Chinese-knockoff version anyway, which doesn’t have a phone but does do WiFi. In essence it’s a larger-than-an-iPhone image viewer / web browser that’s smaller than an iPad and costs 20% as much. Cool stuff, and it let me get a handle on the size /weight of the much more expensive( and still to be released )Samsung tablet. It was a fine few hours of lunch well-spent, especially given that by Christmas, Ruth-Ann will be welcoming a new addition to the family – I’m so very, very happy for them both!

In mid-afternoon I was at The Kilt again, gathered with Lucas, Brian, Pierre, Mike and Trevor T( whom I’d met only once ). It wasn’t at all crowded so we stayed on for dinner – I had a 7oz NY steak for the first time in years, with no trouble at all thanks to some extra enzymes. And beer. Tom was also there; it was his birthday, so it was great to chat with him a bit since I so rarely see him – even after all the years of knowing Lucas. Later on, Mike, Brian Lucas and I went over to the Lake St. Starbuck’s to chill for a bit... and Sarah was working! That was an unexpected bonus, as she’s one of the happiest people I know – being able to see her smile of surprise when she saw me really made my day! A lot of catching up again, along with the usual taunting, as nothing makes it easier to take teasing digs than comfy leather chairs, a cheese tray and some good coffee.

After 10, Lucas and I headed down to the Falls for a low-key party at Ryan’s – Angie, Nancy, Kara, Bill, Paulino, Wang, Lucas, and Brian were all there. I had a capful of Screech for the first time, which made my ears spin and my brain swirl lazily around inside my head like a shaken snowglobe – yowza! Hard liquor and I are going to keep our respectful distance, thanks very much! Some very pleasant hours later, a group of us went out for “some of the best wanton soup ever” – at 2 in the morning. Downtown Niagara Falls sits a small donut shop that somehow also serves wonton soup, so six of us sat down to some steaming bowls... only to immediately become embroiled in a potential fight with two idiots at a nearby table. After some minutes of chest-puffing banter, followed by some not-very-well-received calming banter, the idiots left – sans soup. The people next to the now-vanished idiots told us that the pair had come in looking for a fight... and almost found it. I was not impressed that I nearly ended my trip on a sour note, and won’t be going out for soup to that place again at that hour – not worth it, especially when I net 4 hours of sleep towards the end of my trip atop a really stressful nightcap.

Oct 31 -Sunday Dinner

Breakfast at The Duck was just like old times with Rene, Dave and Lucas – except that the food took almost an hour to arrive. The pancakes proved to be perfect, being light and fluffy and worth the wait / light-headedness from hunger pangs. I zipped back to Simon’s to carve a single eye from my pumpkin, then zipped to the Falls to have lunch at my aunt’s, along with my cousin whom I’d not seen in years. We then went up to Grimsby to visit at my other aunt’s place as they were bringing my uncle back home for a few hours – the first time they’d done so in a year. So it was a very special afternoon spent in the company of my relatives, reminiscing and trading updates on the extended family.

The busy week came to a slow idle in the evening, as I went over to a friend's for dinner with Lucas as well. The turkey dinner they put on was splendid, and I was thrilled that they had invited me to share it with them. I was able to visit for many hours as their new daughter played happily( and cutely-possessively! )with a pumpkin and her toys whilst the doorbell rang with the occasional trick-or-treater – it was a slow night. I was also educated in the breathability of wines after mistaking a decanter for an oddly shaped bottle... well, a vase, really. Lucas presented me with a bottle of award-winning red wine as well to take back with me to BC, and I was really touched by the gesture. All in all it was a grand evening spent so well with friends – the perfect end to a week of highlights for me.

Nov 1 -Back In The Air

Up before 8 and off to Frego’s for a farewell breakfast with Rene – the apple cinnamon pancakes were VERY filling and very tasty! I was on the road to Hamilton by 10am, amused to be following an outdated GPS map to the rental drop-off there – it was MUCH easier during the day, as everything is open! It was a cheap quick cab ride to the airport that saw me seated before noon in the empty lounge area to relax and work on my blog... like I planned it, eh? Apart from the distracting TV blasting ‘The View’ it was great, but once the WestJet wickets opened up I was registered and through security like a flash to get away from the babble.  While waiting I received a call from my parents, the gist of which made me want to caper in joy – it looks like the remainder of 2010 won’t be the usual struggle for us this year, which made MY year when I heard it. Some planning to do, of course, but it means I’ll probably be able to visit Niagara again in early 2011, if I play my cards right – something that I’d have thought impossible yesterday!

Here’s the perfect travel anecdote for modern airport travel, so laugh if you wish. In Calgary, I had about 20 mins before the boarding began for the second leg of the flight, so I thought I’d use that time to, er, inspect the facilities instead of using the ones on board the plane. All was well until it came time for the business to end... then the horror began. Modern airport facilities use IR sensors to detect when you are... finished and moving upwards, so things flush. Apparently someone thought if water pressure equals clean, then dialing things up to ten times normal water pressure means really clean. Meaning the entire stall gets sprayed with... used facility water. So there I am, using copious amounts of TP to keep dry as I move madly around the stall to avoid the evil black eye of the IR sensor, thinking “I’m going to be soaked sitting on the plane, oh crap, the plane is boarding now!” and so forth. I made it to the gate on time and dry overall, even with a flash-stop for a Subway sandwich for the trip. Crazy Calgary... strange thing is, I took this EXACT same flight three years ago today out to Victoria - same schedule, same stop, same Subway sandwich. It was like deja-vu all over again...

Needless to say, I took a shower as soon as I got home. :-)

There’s a bird inside the Hamilton Terminal, flying around and looking for dropped scraps. It’s not a large terminal by any stretch of the mind, so I hope it finds its way out soon. It’s a boring place to be trapped... but it's not forever. I'm happy I could make it out to ON and see as many people as I did... as Mike said, it's like I never left...

TV, Tron and Tickets - yay!

The word of the week is modicum. Because it got me noticed.

Oct 18- Life Episodes

Things are going better lately: I’ve been holding on with both hands to my sanity and my wallet, so my grip’s loosened on the one and held firm on the other as things have improved. I’ll be able to travel to Niagara on more than a shoestring budget this time, which will be great as I really want to get out and see as many people as I can while I’m back next week. Assuming that my tickets show up on time... they’re standby tickets, so once they arrive I’ll make a call to secure my flight reservations.

Monday nights, when I can, I try to catch the latest episode of Castle, with Nathan Fillon. It’s smart, funny and well-written, with great characters who can surprise you sometimes with wise nuggets. Like tonight, when Castle’s partner Beckett is asked “How do you know when you’re in love?” She thinks for just a moment, then says “All the songs make sense.” Succinct! Especially compared to Castle’s own long-winded fumbling trying to answer the same question a minute prior, made all the more amusing by the fact he’s a writer. Shouldn’t he know these things?

Oct 19 – Lost Girl and Riese

A few weeks after the fact, I finally managed to watch the first episode of Lost Girl, starring Anna Silk. I’d downloaded it weeks ago from iTunes to my iPod Nano( nice little gadget! )and it sat there unwatched until today. It was fairly polished, plodded slightly in places, but got the job done in introducing the characters, setting and story in general. It’s got supernatural elements, a few cool fight scenes, mysterious backstories and more – I gave in and bought the first season this week, quite a bargain at $20.99 CDN. Here’s hoping!

Wahoo! More good TV! A week today on Oct. 26^th, SyFy.com will be streaming the webseries Riese to the world – finally! Riese is a steampunk-themed series that follows a female heroine through her journeys as she tries to discover a way to save her dying world. Perfect for me, as I love most things steampunk and apocalyptic ... can’t wait for that one. *grins*

Oct 20 – Watch Tron!

Death and cyberspace: is there a way to live on, in some way, electronically after one’s gone? I’m not talking about some weird low-code avatar of yourself reading from your journal( though that would be creepy if they programmed it to answer questions )but rather what would your silicon remains be? I’d like to think that should I pass on suddenly, that some greater or lesser part of what I was would be available to people for the future, whether they knew me or not. Digital archaeology may just be a viable job in the near future, depending on what one is looking for... Wired magazine posited that thought a little while ago. Fascinating.

I don’t wear watches, as I’ve said before... but this one may make me change my mind: The Tron Watch. It’s simple, elegant stylish and functional – everything I need in a watch, and nothing more. To go from the extreme of loving the calculator watch in its day to this minimalist ideal is, well, liberating. I hope, I hope, that the design will make it from prototype concept to production – I’d wear it proudly!

Oct 21 – Can There Be Too Much Good TV?

There’s a ton of shows out there that I try vainly to keep up with – Fringe, Sanctuary, Stargate Universe... and now The Big Bang Theory. It’s a smart sitcom about two brilliant physicist roomies who learn to deal with life outside of quarks and string theory. Renee introduced me to the show and I love it – especially as she also likes to talk about string theory on occasion. Anyone for a game of Cat’s Cradle with the universe? Anyone?

Yes, more cars with guns – well, armour at least, this time. Plus: it’s made in Toronto! Let me introduce you to the Knight XV, the toughest non-military vehicle you can buy. For a cool $310,000 USD, one of the only 100 being made can be yours, thanks to Conquest Vehicle Inc’s limited production run. Options run the range from FLIR night vision to flat-screen TV’s to a cigar humidor – why not have the best in your rolling armoured cocoon? Pretty cool to have a Canadian flag on this one, even if it does fly in the face of all sanity when it comes to cost and fuel efficiency. Then again, if you have to ask...         

Oct 22 – Tickets! Dating! TGIF!

Apart from my plane tickets FINALLY arriving today( WHEW! )the final day of work for the week kinda dragged – there were a few last-minute errors of the kind that usually pop up when closing that delayed my heading home. Other than those, it was a decent day – my staff are really pulling together into a solid, confident team. So much so that they insisted several times today that I turn OFF my manager’s phone for the duration of my vacation... which I found both endearing and amusing. I can’t turn it off completely, as I have to be available in case of a serious emergency... but I won’t be checking it more than once a day. And I refuse to push email to it – no way!

After work, I met up with Renee to try and find a good pub to hang out at for the evening... much harder than it looks, in Langford. We tried The Loghouse... then Station House, then The Waterwheel Pub. All three were blasting tunes so loud inside that you couldn’t hear anyone across the table from you talk – are you serious? So we headed into town over to Esquimalt, where we had a lovely time chatting over white wine – a great way to spend your evening, even though I know very, very little about wine.

Oct 23 - Passages

Erk... I woke up early today, despite my admonition to sleep in on the first day of my vacation. Five hours sleep is just too little to enjoy a morning, but I tried anyway – there’s nothing good on Saturday Morning Television these days, not even a Ninja Turtle or two to distract one during breakfast. I puttered about a bit, then headed over to The Mountain Bean for some hours in the afternoon to relax while surfing my favourite sites. Vanilla tea and peanut butter cookies go a long, long way to relaxing me.

When I was a kid, I loved secret passages and rooms. A few of the houses my relatives lived in had hidden rooms or tucked-away storage areas that I liked to pretend were undiscovered areas of the home. Even a side-split place across the street on Westgate Park Drive had a set of shelves cleverly designed to hide the half-height storage area in the basement – that was so cool! Looking for things along that topic today, I came across Hiddenpassageway.com, where they make all the things you need to create access to such spaces in your own home. There was apparently a TV special on earlier today called ‘Secret Spaces’ that I’ll have to try to catch again another day; it had the Munster’s house in it!

Oct 24 – DVR Zombies

Now that I have a little time, I’ve taken over the DVR in the other room and am skimming through the many, many shows I’ve set it to record these past few months... and not had the time to watch. I have a ton of Batman: The Animated Series, as well as quite a few Castle and Stargate: Universe episodes I want to see – but I’m leaving on Monday and will be away from the DVR. One solution would be to get a Slingbox, but really: what kind of fool would I be to travel thousands of km’s across the country just to spend most of my time in a Starbuck’s to watch streaming television during my vacation? No thanks.

One week from today, AMC will premiere the new zombie TV series The Walking Dead, based on the acclaimed comic book series. You can catch the latest trailer here at AVClub.com, which hints at the broad scope and character development that the series promises to reveal to us. Quite cool that it’s going to premiere on Halloween, though it may be a challenge to find it streaming online soon after.

Ah... s’been a great weekend, just relaxing, catching up on some TV and not thinking about work. I’ll be arriving late, late Monday night Oct 25^th and picking up my rental car Tues AM. I’ll be staying at Simon’s place, and have no set plans for the week – suggestions, please! *grin* My flight out leaves Nov. 1^st at 4pm, so between now and then, let’s get together and catch up! I’ll have my BC cell with me, my laptop available and my local Niagara number handy( see my FBook page )so call me!

People, Places and Pyjamas

The word of the week is defenestration - it’s windows-related.

Oct 11 – Highway Messages

Was there Life Before Facebook? Oh wait, it was called MySpace.com, that’s right – but nobody goes there any more. Back in the day, answering machines had remote message access, so you could check them from work. Some of you may recall when for a time I changed my answering machine message daily to reflect what I was up to that day – which was really precursor to people’s Facebook Status Updates of today. Somehow I was far ahead of my time in that regard... but never got any credit for it, as it was pre-internet. Dang.

There was a distinct lack of traffic on the highway today, due to the holiday – normally the entire route is a parking lot from 6:30-9:30am ( read the comments! )or thereabouts. There’s been a lot of talk over the last few years about how to solve this Monday-to-Friday weekly problem, ranging from dedicated transit lanes and light-rail links to car pooling( my pick for least-costly ). Finding a solution to the ‘Colwood Crawl’ is something that needs doing soon – I live outside of Greater Victoria, and don’t travel in as much as I could simply because there’s no transit to where I live. Even if there was, I would have to ensure that if I had a 9-5 job in the city I would leave around 6am to get there on time... and that’s just not right, in my mind.

Oct 12 – Beans And Bones

This week I’ve been varying my visits to The Mountain Bean, as my usual time( twice a week or so )has me there in later afternoon before closing. It’s the best time for thinking, writing, relaxing and surfing, as there’s usually nobody there. Mornings are nice, but unfortunately they also tend to fill up with young mothers and young children – nothing wrong with them enjoying themselves, be it ever so... loud. Just goes to show that I was raised to be TOO quiet a kid, I think, as I seem to expect stellar behaviour from stranger’s kids... and when it doesn’t happen within a few minutes, I tend to leave them to their boisterous enjoyment which they are fully entitled to and head for more quiet climes with my tea to go.

Oooooh.... WAY too cool news for Wolverine fans: titanium bones are a reality! A new substance called ‘titanium foam’ has been developed that can be used to bond with bone and make it stronger. An article over at NewScientist.com has all the details, though for now it looks to be useful only for bone grafts and long-gap replacement situations. No word yet on making it into an injectable liquid... stay tuned!

Oct 13 – Hump Day Sucks

What a crappy day – I was called in on my day off to let an employee go today, which really stinks, as we’re not so large a company that you don’t get to know people well. In this particular person’s case, I’d tried all I could think of and more to bring them up to speed at work, as well as listening to their other problems from outside of work. Unfortunately, the personal issues proved too much, and were affecting their work to the point where my DM made the decision to let them go. I honestly feel this was the best thing for the employee, as they need to figure out what direction their life needs to take and to get things sorted out in their head. It’s going to be a stinky week for the rest of us, as we all worked closely  and wanted things to work so badly... but it was obvious at this point that improvements had to come from inside. Still sucks big-time; it was too gorgeous a day out for things to work out like they did.

If I had a billion dollars... would I build the world’s largest personal residence with it? Maybe, or maybe not – that’s a lot to spend to put a roof over your head. Yet an Indian tycoon has just completed his massive home’s construction in Mumbai – as you can see, it has 5 heliports, a staff of 600 and is over five hundred feet high. Makes you wonder about his electrical bill....

Oct 14 – Miners and Bandwidth

The last of the 33 trapped Chilean miners reached the surface today, ending a months-long ordeal that has been followed by billions as it unfolded. Seeing things come to a happy end honestly surprised me, as there was no real way to know if the miners could be reached in time in their shelter before time ran out on their supplies. I’m sure there will be movies made about this epic survival story, and one has to wonder how much the lives of those 33 miners are going to change... even 20 years from now, they will likely still be famous in some way, even if it’s just in Chile. The world has a short memory for these things... but we do like to be reminded when it comes to happy endings for people enduring fate’s touch.

Uh oh... as I mentioned above, we have traffic jams on a regular basis here in Victoria, but news today that there’s soon going to be the same thing on the wireless cell phone networks? An article in the local Victoria Times Colonist states that the spectrum used by smartphones is 10 times that of a normal phone, and if you’re on a laptop( with a wireless cell fob )then you use up to 1,300 times the bandwidth – ouch! Mind you, people are paying through the nose for massive data plans( which I think is wrong )but the bandwidth has to come from somewhere. Having an always-connected device on you can also be bad for your health, as we just don’t know enough about the long-term effects of radio waves on the human body at close range. So don’t sleep with your phone under your pillow until we know more.

Oct 15 – Half as much stress is good!

I’m filling in at the Millstream branch all this week, covering the shifts that were left vacant when my employee was let go on Wed. It looks like things are going to be settled there by next week, so I’ll be taking my leave of running both branches and focusing simply on Colwood. It’s a relief to me, as I’ve been quite exhausted trying to keep my head above the paperwork tide in addition to keeping abreast of the day-to-day operations. Being in charge of just a single branch is exactly what I need to keep my energy levels stable and my mind less packed with too much needing done now. By this time next week, my worries will be solely confined to Colwood, but I have a solid staff there too that I’m very proud of to assist me in keeping the place running in top form.

Some good financial news arrived in the mail yesterday for my parents, so that’s taken a fair deal of pressure off us for the remainder of the year. I actually slept well last night for the first time in many, many months, despite the stresses from Wednesday’s situation. Strange how things tend to fall into place when you’re not looking( huzzah! )as yesterday was a good example. While in town for a doctor’s appointment, we looked in the window of the pharmacy next door and beheld a new personal walker on sale for a LOT less than we’ve seen anywhere else( after looking for a year! ). Thanks to the good news, we were able to snap it up immediately for my mother, whose non-replaced knee has worsened recently and made mobility hard for her. So within 24 hours we went from trying to budget for the walker somehow to simply being able to buy one at a fantastic price, and she’s incredibly happy.

Oct 16 - Shapes

Architecture fascinates me... not that I’ve done much in the way of designing, but I’ve come to appreciate the new design ideas that one comes across when surfing the wide world ‘net. One such design is Above Below which is featured at Trendhunter.net – it’s described as an ‘underground skyscraper’ which seems like an oxymoron until you get a look at it. There’s also a ton of other unique designs showcased on the same page at Trendhunter.net, which I happily spent a while browsing through – I especially like underground houses for their efficiency, though not as much for their views...

Hokay, I’ll be the first to admit I could be in better shape... though I’ve lost 30 lbs since I arrived in Victoria, I haven’t converted the rest into sculpted-muscle studliness – yet. Now word comes down that in the interim while my fitness routine ramps up, I can always digitally edit my image in real time via MovieReshape – how’s that??? Go have a look and you won’t believe your eyes – you can literally move a slider and watch yourself changed from blob to buff on the fly. So you can retroactively edit those not-so-flattering videos of your latest vacation to match your currently-buff bod... and ask yourself why you didn’t get into shape back then before you tried on those really unflattering swimsuits.

Oct 17 - Pyjamas

Yeah, I worry about a lot of things... not as many lately as I have in the past, but many of the same recurring themes. One of those is what happens if my laptop is stolen... which is why I resurrected my old clunker to carry around with me and that has no personal information on it. I could always encrypt my data to keep it safe, but it’d slow things down even more. What I worry more about is if someone breaks into my home – just imagine all the personal information you have laying about, unguarded, as well as the easy access to your home computer. You DO have a password on yours, right? What about your personal data, like tax forms, bank account info and yes, even lists of passwords? Have a look at what one guy learned about losing his laptop and how to protect your info from thieves – worthwhile.

I spent only half a shift at work today, with some hours free in the afternoon that I’d hoped to spend with Renee – she and I had coffee for a few hours yesterday. However, I ended up going out to The Station House pub for dinner with some friends from work, and their friends, which was great as I haven’t been getting out much lately at all. We all spent a good few hours enjoying each other’s company and I left a few of them there still, talking about a drunken pyjama party... unfortunately, not something I could really attend in the capacity as their boss, despite their entreaties. I also don’t own any pyjamas, come to think of it... ah well. Still a great time.

No news on the dating front this week due to a cold – maybe this week, when I might have ticket news about me heading back to Niagara as of Oct. 25^th!!!

Scores, Sandman and Starship Sofa

The word of the week is prescient. Are you?

Oct 4 – That’s a lot of Texting...

Have you seen the Cigar Guy internet Meme yet? If not, go have a look – it involves Tiger Woods, in a peripheral way, and may serve to boost his career... again. I find it fascinating that we live in an age of such instant communication that a simple picture can launch a thousand tributes... or a song can launch a career, such as with Justin Bieber. Given the choice, I’d take Cigar Guy on the TV any day of the week.

Text messages are becoming my bane; Renee prefers them as a method of communication. Sadly, my LG Shine phone from a few years ago is great in many ways, but does not have a QUERTY keyboard. I’m considering an upgrade to a new phone soon anyway as my contract expires in a month( I despise phone contracts!!! )so I’m looking at low-cost models with a full keyboard for texting . I don’t really want to splurge on a ‘super smartphone’ right now, as my instinct tells me that there will be a MUCH better offering on the market by this time next year, so I’m looking for suggestions / deals with Telus phones. No iPhones either, though a used one may be just the ticket... but it’d have a virtual keyboard. Can’t win with that.

Oct 5 – Long Day, Creeping By

A long day today; one of the girls from the Millstream store had trouble opening the safe this morning, so I trucked on down there to help... in the process witnessing a fender-bender at a stop right in front of me. A new driver failed to wait for a truck turning left in front of her and rammed it, fortunately not at any great speed – the sound of metal boxes slamming together is quite distinct but fortunately nobody was hurt. I left my name and number as a witness and scooted to work, where I then took 2 hours off due to demands on the car and spent the time at the local library – I read Neil Gaiman’s The Kindly Ones, a Sandman graphic novel. Spectacular. The rest of the day slid by solidly until I closed the store.

Most of you out there know that I am very, very careful about what personal information I put up online – FB is a good example, as I don’t use my real last name, just my pen name. It’s just too easy to put bits and pieces together from sources all over the ‘net that as a whole can be damaging in various ways. I was reminded of this today, as a co-worker asked if I had ‘creeped’ anyone online via FB or Google yet – the thought hadn’t occurred to me, but apparently that’s what everyone does nowadays...?  I can see the merits in it, as you might get lucky and find out a bit of info, but on the other hand, what if you find out something that you don’t like? Tough choices.

Oct 6 – Starship Sofa Super-ness!

Congrats to Brian for his ramping up of his uber-involvement as Art Director for StarshipSofa beginning this month! Way To Go Buddy!  Brian’s been with S.Sofa for some time now, and put me onto listening to his Hugo-Award-Winning audio magazine... my iPod Nano’s full of episodes that I listen to whenever I can; there’s always a good story in there and the host Tony C. Smith does an amazing job every show. I highly recommend a listen!

Hmmm... having Wednesdays off worked out this week – the weather was perfect! Of course, life couldn’t let me have perfection, as when I walked over to The Mountain Bean a little after lunch for a few hours relaxing outside... they were closed, with an apologetic note in the window. So I brewed up some tea and settled for my balcony instead, complete with peanut butter cookies. Earl Grey with Vanilla is spectacular, by the way – very smooth and definitely a different taste.

Oct 7 – No Niagara News, Just Local TV

Still no word about the plane tickets to Niagara, and my vacation at the end of October is fast approaching. I’m hoping that they will arrive this week, so I can let everyone know that I’m heading down – right now, it’s still up in the air. *ba-da-boom* I’ll send out an email ASAP once they arrive!

This doesn’t happen every day: my mom was on local television today, being interviewed. She’d written a letter into the station about the lack of transit( of any kind )here on Bear Mountain... and today they sent out a reporter to record an interview with her on the subject of interest! Have a look below( sorry about the audio, Blogger.com seems to have converted the video w/o it. Working on it! ):

Oct 8 – Writings and Workingz

Does anybody out there keep a journal? A diary? A mini-blog? A private stash of letters to themselves that nobody will ever read? I’m curious; as I’ve been writing this blog for almost 3 years solid, I’m wondering if anyone else out there does anything similar. I know there are some obsessive cases of people documenting their entire lives, but as I’ve said before in this blog, mine’s not interesting enough to put down that much detail day to day. Maybe some future sociologist will revel in collecting the textual detritus of blogs into a comprehensive picture of our current Cultural Age, but I doubt any of my entries will be there. Who can say how long Blogger.com will stay online? A decade? A century? Will it be archived for posterity in deep underground Google Vaults? We’ll have to see what the future brings.

Fridays at work are much better than they’ve been, with four people scheduled for the day. It makes things so much easier when the lobby fills up, and the customers are happier that they have less time spent waiting in line. It also helps that I have a fine crew, who keep improving their skills day to day and get along famously with each other – no prima donnas or woe-is-me types at all. Makes me smile!

Oct 9 – Savings and Scrubbed Dates

I know I keep throwing them out there, but I do find a lot of interesting and useful sites for your edification: SparkSavings.com is no exception. You can register to use its free financial tools, which are great for budgets, calculating spending habits and learning from other people’s experiences with finance – for free! I’m all about the free, as I’ve said before... with the ‘net at your fingertips, you can find tons of great advice. You just have to learn which bits to take, and which to ignore. Simple, right?

This evening was a bit of a wash, so I spent it in - talking on the phone, mostly, for the later part of the evening right up until midnight. Not a date night, though the weather was rather calm and balmy, for all that.

Oct 10 – Super Score... 42?

Seeing as I worked today, there was little chance of my catching a few games online with my friends on Xbox, as we usually do on Sundays. But, to my surprise, Dave was still online when I logged in after 8pm, and we jumped into a solid few hours of Battlefield: Bad Company 2. The last game of the night was a long drag-out fight with tiny 4-man teams that took the better part of 45 mins – I had the highest score I’ve ever dreamed of from it! 29,743 in total, with 26 pins that included a TON of long-term experience earnings... I was flabbergasted, really, and will be hard-put to ever equal that again. So I mention it here and now – huzzah!

What an auspicious date today: 10/10/10 – the perfect score in many an Olympic sport or contest, and just plain lucky to boot. Today is also ’42 Day’ in celebration of that legendary number from The Hitchiker’s Guide To The Galaxy – rather an awkward name for a day, really, but it gets the point across. Seeing as I recently missed Talk Like A Pirate Day, I’ll be sure to mark this one on the calendar... and check it every 42 days, give or take. Thanks for the heads-up on this one, Brian... I’ll send you a nice towel as a thank-you. Oh, and it’s today’s date as 101010 in binary that turns out to be the number 42. Cool, eh?

And... that’s all for now except for: Newt And John! Have you checked it out this week yet? Stop reading this blog and go now! It’s the Silent Treatment!