Snow, Sisters and Seagate

The word of the week is vacation!

Jan 10 - Zoom Xoom?

As I wait this year to decide what phone I'm going to apply my Telus credit towards, I've been keeping my eye firmly on the tablet market. The limitations of the iPad don't appeal to me, so I've been watching the Android market, especially since CES has been going on this week. In particular, the Motorola Xoom was announced, a powerful dual-core 10.1” tablet... that has a freakin' barometer in it. Which means I could finally get real-time( and historical )tracking of atmospheric pressure trends locally, to help predict when my headaches would be imminent due to weather changes. Now that's using tech to make life easier, in my opinion. We'll have to see what the Xoom costs when it arrives though.

Jan 11 - Star Trek Tech News

Yes, Mr. Scott, it's true: scientists have come up with a new material that is stronger and lighter than steel... and it's glass. Can you say Transparent Aluminum? You know the next step is going to be clear hull sections for cruise ships, or clear bathtubs... the possibilities are endless. Depending on how expensive the process turns out to, you might see things made transparent that never could be before. Sure, it's not exciting news to some... but like cell phones, you may suddenly start seeing things using the new substance everywhere sooner than you think.

Jan 12 - Buh-bye Snow!

While the rest of the continent has been effectively snowed under this week, we've been getting rain here. Lots of rain, which is to be expected really – we have a small lake nearby, Lake Ida Anne, and there's an island in the middle. Well, there was at any rate... with all the rain, it's totally submerged, and there's some flooding elsewhere on Vancouver Island. Living as I do on the top of a mountain however, means I never have to worry about flooding, or earthslips, or a lot of things. Just getting down from here when the snow's thick and the ice is lurking is challenging though, so it has its bad points. Rain too.

Jan 13 - Sister Visits BC!

An early, early day today: out the door at 6am to head into Victoria( and beat the traffic logjam )to drop off my mother for a doctor's appointment( after breakfast at White Spot ). From there my dad and I went to the airport to pick up my sister! I haven't seen her since the summer, as she lives in Calgary, so it's a thrill to have her here. Especially since I'm on vacation next week and can actually spend some time with her... heck, even my dad has some days off so we can go and do things as a family – huzzah! Unfortunately I had to work today, so it wasn't quite family time yet... but we persevered: in the evening we watched How To Train Your Dragon which is about as fine a film as I've ever seen; even after a few viewings it still retains its charm, wit and perfect pacing. See it, if you haven't already, or watch it again if it's been awhile.

Jan 14 - Muppet Yuks

Back in the day, I had a long-running D&D campaign that I ran as a DM – it went for over four years, with many players( and characters )coming and going in that time. In fact, only one player and one character made it through right to the end: Zartan. Josh, you should be proud! Why do I mention this? Well, as a storyteller, I like to inject humour into my stories whenever possible( and appropriate )but it's not easy to be funny. Silly, yes... but consistently funny is hard. Which is why I found the following hilarious: Statler and Waldorf commenting on a D&D arena battle. Hold your sides before they split!

Jan 15 - The Seagate Saga continues ...

Ahhh.... my first day of vacation. Time to kick back, relax and... take my laptop into the shop. Well, pick it up from the shop today, that is. Having spent the week struggling with the replacement Seagate drive, I'd had it by Wed and brought it into Best Buy to see what their techs could do. Turns out they had a few methods I didn't( I asked and memorized them, of course )that brought it back to life. Which lasted until I got it home today and it wouldn't turn on. So back to Best Buy, where we pull the CMOS battery... and it still doesn't work. What's left to do? Call Seagate and ream them a few new ones( politely )over the phone and see if I can't wrangle a deal to get this piece of garbage out of my house without taking any more of a loss. It's been such a headache; I won't dwell further on the details, but I have a hundred better things to do than spend hours every week swapping hard drives...

Jan 16 - Family Sunday

A(n) (a)typical Sunday today: I made pancakes for my family for breakfast, the first time in over a year, as it's special to have ALL my immediate family here with me. The early part of the day was (un)surprisingly spent online, where four friends and I relived the 'glory days' of November 2010 playing Call of Duty: Black Ops together... and doing not so badly. Heck, one game I went 13-0 Kills/deaths – a new record for me! Late lunch over at the Bean with my sister, where we sat in front of the incredibly hot fireplace( gorgeous on a wet cold rainy day )and talked shop and other things. She's really loving her new laptop, one I picked up last week and spent many hours tweaking into the perfect setup for her – what are g33ky brothers for, if not for that? The evening was split between fixing a friend's computer that my sister brought with her and spending time with my fave family. And the cat.

I'm glad my vacation's finally here; I can really use the downtime, despite the laptop troubles. I'll be spending as much time as possible with my sister, as it's so rare that she's here for more than a day or two. Family - it's what it's all about.

Success, Second Chances and Soul-Searching

The word of the week is fulfillment. Because we need some.

Jan 3 -The Near Future

2011 has been good so far, admittedly only 3 days in. Several of my long-term financial plans are clicking into place, which though they won't quite yet allow me to get the yacht of my dreams( I have to learn seamanship first )they have taken some of the ungodly pressure off me as of... now. Not quite having to budget every dollar of every paycheque now means I can sleep better at night, which may mean these dark bruises around my eyes will soften. Which means I can wear contacts again without people asking who poked me in both eyes that morning. Which would be VERY nice indeed - nobody likes a poke in the eye, even with the best of intentions.


Jan 4 - Selfishness

Now that things are on the upswing around here, I've been looking to the future: me. What to do about me, specifically. Where to live, where to work, what to do in my off time... until this point, my primary focus has been to ensure my parents are set up properly for their retirement. No ifs, ands, or buts about it: when I take my leave, it will be fine financially for them AND me. I've been considering living 'downtown' again( by that, in Victoria itself )to take advantage of transit and being able to cycle places instead of drive. Which also means perhaps a new job - my take so far on freelance writing has been less than rosy for supporting myself independently; Don't Quit Your Day Job really does apply to that field even after you're established. So stay tuned to see how things pan out this coming year, to see where( perhaps literally )my choices take me.

Jan 5 - Go Green

Yahoo News may have got to it a week late, but the videos are worth looking at: the Goldstream River here in Langford turned neon green last week. Turns out it was pranksters putting a batch of Fluorescein into the water( supposedly non-toxic )of the fountain in downtown Langford, as well as the Goldstream River - which is stupid, as it's a very delicate ecosystem that hosts spawning salmon which in turn are fed on by bald eagles, bears and other creatures. Here's a picture of the fountain I took - with the sun shining through it, you can really see the green:

Jan 6 - My Library to go

My 'new' iPhone 3G is a great little gadget; I'm glad I picked it up, especially given the mature state of the Apple App Store... and the fact that most of the apps are dirt cheap at 99cents( or thereabouts )for most apps. I've browsed through quite a few, and found many that exemplify how smartphones help people better manage and even improve their lives. One such app is My Library, a database for your collection of movies, CD albums... and books! It utilizes the built-in camera on the iPhone to scan the barcode of the item in question, then adds it to the database after checking for additional data on the internet. I've wanted exactly this sort of app for years, but balked at spending hundreds( at the cheapest! )for a barcode scanner and proprietary software. Now I can scan books into the phone as I have time, so that when I'm browsing titles at a local bookshop I will KNOW if I already own the title. Having the iPhone with me means I'll never make a duplicate purchase again... very important when I already own thousands of books, plus dozens of series / movies on DVD. Definitely lifestyle-enhancing.

Jan 7 -The Voice Of Viral Success
 
Sometimes you can win again after losing: such was the case with Ted Williams, whom by now most of you know as the Homeless Guy with the Radio Voice. In less than a week, he's gone from begging for work by the roadside to being on most major news networks, talk shows and news sources. It's a rags-to-recognition story that some may call a gilded one, glossing over Ted's prison time and the fact he left nine children unsupported... but it's still heart-warming. I found myself following the story daily as soon as I heard about it( thanks Brian! )as I have more than a passing interest in anyone who makes their living via their voice. I hope Ted ends up finding success again in life.

Jan 8 - Winter Green

Not much to say about work today: I opened, I didn't get much done, I left early - I just couldn't seem to concentrate today, especially with the sun shining outside( and vanishing behind threatening not-quite-snow clouds later in the day ). Although I don't get the massive migraines I did in ON from the barometric pressure flux with weather changes, I can still feel the change - like someone tapping softly on the front door instead of ringing the bell or knocking: you know they're there, but you're not sure. It is nice not having snow here in Victoria; in the winter, things stay green, which is a lot more pleasant than seeing nothing but brown and grey when the snow isn't around for a few days. It's like this for most of the winter in these parts:



Jan 9 -Moody Gaming

My days off of late( by that I mean, the last year )have been all about refuge: taking time of from work, from life, and sometimes myself. Today was a good example of a few of those, when the highlight of the day was deleting the character from Sacred2 that I'd spent the most time in developing... the wrong way. I still see the game as a time-sink, if I let it be )for single-player, yet the irony is that if I want to game with my friends, I have to spend the time to develop a character that can keep pace with theirs. An odd dichotomy, to crunch so many hours by oneself so that you can then crunch MORE hours with friends. Then start over again to try a new path - similar to NWN in many ways, but more hectic somehow; it's hard to explain, but with NWN it would be months before one's chosen character attained higher levels. Less about the loot too. Anyway, that was the morning - the rest of the day degenerated into moodiness that I won't detail here, with the highlight being the evening spent typing up this very blog. [End Ramble]

Mmm.... cookies. Good for the soul, if not the body.

Breakfast, Books and Barriers

The word of the week is unfamiliar, not hideous - though I like that one too.

Dec 27 – On Relaxation

I enjoyed some time over at the Bean today, including a chipotle roast chicken sandwich that was just the right level of spice. It was good to have a day off, especially after working as much as I did for the last few weeks – I have some vacation time scheduled in January and need to schedule some more soon after that, as I really need the downtime. I won't be going anywhere, as I think a staycation would do me some good to let me get some projects done here at home... as well as sleeping in and getting out a little bit to explore my surroundings and relieve 'cabin fever' – if you want to call it that. Mountain fever?

Dec 28 - Bear Breakfast

Not so bad a day: working early means home early and more time to do things... plus a breakfast at A&W always helps start the day right( they issue coupons every few months that make it cheaper! ). It's very convenient that there are not one but two A&W's on my way to work, though I prefer the one nearer to my home as they're a much more professional crew. The one by my workplace seems to have motivation and efficiency issues on a regular basis, which turns simple orders into waiting games. Teamwork has always been something I've been proud of wherever I work, presuming that you can get along decently with the other people you work with. There's always the chance of a personality clash, but given my own personality traits it's always been the other person who's moved on – if you're not able to work with people, then don't be in a job where that's a necessity of employment. Duh.

Dec 29 –eBooks

Of all the apps I've installed on my iPhone 3G, the one I've been enjoying the most is the Kindle eBook reader from Amazon. I've downloaded a few books in the last few weeks, ones I've been meaning to read for some time but never found for a decent price( eBooks are much cheaper too! ). Now I've read The Windup Girl and am halfway through the latest Wheel of Time book The Gathering Storm, which I'm enjoying immensely. Though it's a tragedy that Robert Jordan died before he could complete his epic series, I think it's in good hands with Brandon Sanderson who is finishing things off. With thousands of characters and dozens of intricate plotlines, it's a huge job and I can't wait to see how everything gets tidied up in the end. Reading it as an eBook( and having as many other books as I want to buy with me wherever I go )is just the icing on the cake. It'd be better on a 7” tablet though; soon, soon...

Dec 30 - Sacred Drives

Having downloaded Sacred2 last week, I've played it on and off with a couple friends and found it fairly enjoyable. Sure, it has the standard Fetch This or Kill That quests, but those are more fun with friends than alone... it's not really like grinding. I've known this for years, having played NWN for as long as I have, so it's a change to do it on the Xbox. Unfortunately I'm still having lag issues, which I now believe to be intrinsic to the game code itself, as everything with my router, XboxLive and internet service all check out fine after days of testing( including other games ). Frustrating as that is, it's a fun game when it works and a good subtitute for NWN until my new drive from Seagate arrives. Did I mention that I called Seagate yesterday for an express Warranty replacement to be sent to me? That's the thing about cutting edge technology: sometimes you get cut, and you end up bleeding more money.

Dec 31 - New Year's Chilling

Dang, it was busy at work today... but at least there were two of us to handle the busy; good to have help. It was a trial getting home afterwards though; I'd given the car to my dad to get him to work, and as his was a late shift he wouldn't be back until 1am. I was finished much earlier around dinnertime and took a bus to the base of Bear Mountain; they ran free tonight after 6pm. That leg took me over an hour( about the same time as walking )as the connector is once hourly; waiting in the cold with no bus shelter wasn't fun. Neither was trying to get a cab up the mountain; I gave up after 30 mins of busy signals and being told elsewher the wait was 2 hours... at dinnertime? What's with that, even on New Year's Eve? I finally gave up and walked up the mountain, which took another 45 minutes, putting me home a little after 9pm, 3 hours after I'd finished work. Such are the trials of being off the transit grid. I was rather tired after all that and channel-surfed myself to sleep... about as boring a New Year's as I've had in a while.

Jan 1 -2011 Visitations

We had some company over today, distant cousins who moved from Niagara many years ago and we've reconnected with since moving to BC. Life's like that: wherever you go, there you are, and as like there's someone who knows someone you knew. Or family, in this case – nice folks. By the time they left, I'd obliquely introduced them to the wonders of Ubuntu 10.10, showing them how they could take an install CD-ROM( I gave them one )and run it alongside WinXP to breathe new life into their tired old PC. They brought the topic up, not me, in case you were wondering, as they asked why my laptop looked 'odd' – I explained that since I was waiting for a replacement drive to install Win7, I'd popped in an old drive and was using Ubuntu to surf the web and do other generalized tasks. They were intrigued.

Jan 2 – Ice on the Mountain

The hardest part about today wasn't that it was insanely busy at work and I was by myself – I've done that before many times and though it's tiring, I can handle it. No, the hardest part was getting to work and back safely: since the temperature here dropped below zero, ice formed on the road( the only road )down from the mountain. It's made more dangerous due to the winding and sloping nature of the road and by the fact that the shadow of the hillsides allows the ice to remain for most of the day; a very dangerous combo even without snow. There have been several crashes in the last 24 hours taking out a light pole and a utility box respectively, with only some minor injuries fortunately. Riding roughshod with our snow chains may be slow and loud, but it's better than sliding off the edge of a steep hill – they don't believe in crash barriers here in BC like they have everywhere in southern ON. Crazy.

It's harder to write these blogs all at once, as has been happening of late. Usually I make notes day to day as the week goes on, but not in December. No surprise there; I wanted to write something inspiring this week for 2011, but nothing came to mind that I haven't already put into the blog. Ah well - I have an entire year ahead of me to discover.

Christmas, Concepts and Crazy

The word of the week is tenuous.

Dec 20 – Wearing Presents

Only a few more days until Christmas and the feeding frenzy at retailers across the country is in full swing. I bowed out this year( and last year, and the year before )for as I mentioned I don’t shop in December. That still doesn’t stop me from surfing online for cool gift ideas, or just ideas for things to get for myself should the need( and cash )arise in sync. One area I’m keeping my eye on is wearable tech: Tom’s Hardware has a great list of Wearable Tech of the Future with some really cool things. I thought the eJOUX concept wristlet and the wearable suitcase were really cutting-edge, though again I would be hard-pressed to find a practical use for them when it comes time to pony up the asking price.

Dec 21 – Not Quite NWN

There’s a sale on this week on Xbox live, for a fair number of games. I already have quite a number of unfinished games( ie. most of my collection )so I’m more curious to see the discounts than the actual games themselves. Several of my friends have recommended Sacred 2 to me, as being very similar to NWN  - though this review states it’s more of a Diablo clone. I’m not one to spend hours a week running around trying to l00t and farm gold; I’d rather spend the time playing with my friends online and interacting with them than trying to get a Sword of Uber-Headsmacking. I think I’ll check out the trial later this week and see how it fares...

Dec 22 – Driving me Crazy( -er )

The Hard Drive Saga continues... but it’s getting better. I must have swapped out the drive at least a dozen times this past week, at one point sticking in the old drive from my parent’s laptop and installing Ubuntu 10.10 on it, just to see if there was a hardware issue with the laptop – nope. What I’ve discovered is that while the new drive goes into Sleep Mode and wakes up from such perfectly, it does NOT play well when it goes into Hibernation. So, I’ve set the laptop to ONLY go to Sleep and not Hibernate( save and shutdown, essentially )and that seems to have done the trick – for now. Some time with Seagate Tech Support next week might turn up a permanent solution, but for now I’m no longer faced with returning the drive under a warranty replacement. Unless it does turn out to be a defect...

Dec 23 – It’s an iPhone!

Telus and I kissed and made up today... or at least agreed not to sue each other. After a fair bit of wrangling on the phone, I activated a used iPhone 3G I purchased inexpensively from a co-worker. It’s under the 2-year contract that still remains in effect, with a decent data plan and features... plus a $100 credit towards a new phone up until the end of 2011. So in essence, I can use my ‘new’ iPhone for a year while I decide if I want to go Android or Apple, as well as what model of phone I eventually want... for less. Overall, I’m not really upset, except for the contractual hassles and hoops I went through to get to this point. I do not believe I will ever sign another contract again, with any cell company, for any reason – they make my head hurt. Better to go to another model of cell plan, like the Koodoo Tab( which is a Telus subsidiary, btw )and avoid contracts altogether.

Dec 24 – Merry Xmas Eve and All That

Not so busy a Christmas Eve today; I was out the door and home by 2pm, which I wasn’t expecting. It was the final of 11 days in a row of working, albeit with some of those days shorter than others. I spent a good part of the evening playing COD: Black Ops, which I admit isn’t the most peaceful way to spend the night before Christmas... but it WAS a fair bit of fun.  I also spent way too much time surfing the Apple AppStore, looking for cheap / free apps that would be useful to me while avoiding the thousands of CrapApps that clog the place. One I immediately installed is DropBox, which is a file-sharing app that lets me drop whatever files( docs / pics / etc )into a folder on my laptop and have it be sharable between all my tech gadgets, be they computer, iPhone or what-have-you. Much easier than trying to pick and choose things to carry with you; wireless connectivity at its finest. Not to be confused with FileFactory.com, which lets you host up to 500gigs of files to share with friends / family – free!

Dec 25 – Christmas, of course!

A very relaxing Christmas, spent at home with my family... well, unfortunately not my sister who is waaaay out in AB, but we talked for a while today – that was nice. We had a great turkey dinner early at 1pm( leftovers! )and ended up watching the first two Shrek movies – great family time today. While we didn’t do much at all in the way of presents, the highlight of the day was the Zhu Zhu Hamster pet that we picked up for the cat. Whoever thought up these kids toys should expand into the pet market; these electronic scamperers are the perfect distraction for cats. They make cute random noises, zoom around in random paths and have a faux-fur finish that just asks for a cat to bat at playfully. Very amusing.

Dec 26 – Boxed In

Boxing Day turned out to be a bust at work, which was fine: it was steady but not insanely busy as I had suspected it might have turned out to be. The day passed quickly enough but at no point was I overwhelmed with customers, despite news that it was fairly busy at retailers here in Victoria. I didn’t bother this year, as there’s nothing I really need / really want to spend the cash for... and certainly nothing I was going to line up overnight for, even if there’s no snow out this way. I spent the evening typing up my blog, losing it, then trying to recover it from drafts / saved caches – no luck there. I packed it in after midnight and slept, dreaming oddly of see-through high-end toilets with colourful logos... which probably meant I shouldn’t have gone to bed angry. Or ate all those cookies left out for Santa.

Yes, I’m annoyed at Windows LiveWriter, as it happily overwrote the blog entry for Dec. 13 for NO discernable reason – no setting or preference can explain why it picked the second-most-recent post to blast into nothingness. So I’m back to editing in Word until I figure out how to safeguard my blog’s contents from random deletion – another black mark for Windows and its ilk.

Due to Windows LiveWriter being helpful enough to delete my blog draft and replace it with a 'live' copy, my blog is being rewritten from scratch Monday morning.

That sucks. 

People, Pictures and... -reposted-

PLEASE NOTE: This blog post was originally published  Dec 13 2010. Thanks to the wonders of random date postings via Windows LiveWriter, it was automagically deleted and reposted the week of Dec. 26th 2010.


Moral of the story? Don't expect Windows to know what the hell it's doing. And keep a backup copy!

The word of the week is melancholy. Because a good friend noticed.
  
Dec 6 – Questions and Sunsets

Ask yourself Two Questions, in order to gain focus in your life? Sure, why not. Getting some direction in your life is always a good thing, especially if you’re not sure that what you’re doing is what you’re meant to be doing – if you’re one of those people who believe in Fate( I’m not ). Then again, there’s the argument that there’s no such thing as coincidence, that everything happens for a reason… some things in this life can’t be easily explained, and others we just shrug off because we’re uneasy examining them too closely. Have a look at the Two Questions and see if you might make a difference in your own life by the addition of simplification.
A view of the sky from atop Bear Mountain, just one of the many spectacular views from way up here in the forested heights. Don’t wander too far into the woods though; there’s more than bears in these parts…

Dec 7 – Routing Mountains

Ah, irony. I spent a few hours this morning tweaking, pleading and generally getting annoyed with my parent's router. I had it working the way I wanted it to by noon... which was when the replacement NEW router arrived with the mail. Perfect timing. The new NetGear WNDR3700 was a little slow to set up, but I was impressed not only with its speed, but the fact that I didn't have to dig around to get my Vonage IP phone OR my Xbox connected to the 'net. They worked immediately after being plugged in – something my old D-Link DIR-655 couldn't manage without internal surgery. Some hours of gaming and surfing later let me to conclude that my only bottleneck now is the speed of our internet connection, which admittedly is just fine for general surfing, VOIP and gaming, perhaps not all at the same time. I'm cheap, but when you buy quality, it shows sometimes.
The Olympic Mountains, south of Victoria across the Salish Sea( cool names, eh? ). Inspiring in their imposing might, they create a cooling effect when the wind blows over their frozen peaks. Amazing to look at from Dallas Road any time of year.

Dec 8 – Lakes and Linux

Whoops – I managed to brick two of my computers before lunch today; not a thing to be proud of. I skilfully resurrected the older laptop with a re-install of Fedora13 Linux, so it was up and running by late evening, after which I added some more programs and functionality to it. I took a break around lunch to play some COD: Black Ops with friends, having a few really great games. Sometimes I get in the groove, sometimes it gets me – there were some truly awful games today for me. All in all, it was a good second of two days off, which only a few phone calls from work. I also spent a few hours reviewing Telus' Terms Of Service, looking for things that will allow me to tweak their nose about my 2-year contract with no phone that I'm stuck in; really, really not impressed with that, as a long-term customer of theirs.
This is a lake I lived on for a year. The beauty is breathtaking; the peaceful illusion is just that, due to construction, a public park and neighbours with motorcycles. We couldn’t leave soon enough. The lesson? Check out the neughbourhood thoroughly before you sign a lease… or worse, a mortgage.

Dec 9 – Long Days and Large Hotels

Due to staffing constraints, I worked a split shift today, opening the store and taking a couple of hours off in the afternoon before heading back in to close the store again. I headed over to McDonald's again on Island Highway, where I spent a few hours surfing and typing. Their seats are definitely designed to encourage people to leave after their meal, NOT for long-term comfort. Sadly, their fireplace is never on, as it smells of gas… but you think they’d get it fixed, especially in the winter!
An evening view of the Empress Hotel, a mighty lady who has sat regally by the harbourside here for over a century. One of these days I’ll find a few folks to attend High Tea with me there, just to be able to say I’ve done it – it’s too pretentious to make it a regular thing, and too expensive. Notice the hybrid taxis...

Dec 10 – Rainbows and Stuff

Every two weeks today: payday. For some, it’s no biggie, but for others, it’s a relief to have some money in the account again. I’ve been in both places and I have to say that planning ahead( ‘budgeting’ )is the way to go. Not so much living in denial of your debts but planning ahead for your future freedom… as well as making sure you don’t blow things by way of a flashing new car / TV / home addition. Too many people live paycheque to paycheque in Canada; I wonder how much happier we’d all be if we didn’t worry even half as much about needing a day job to pay for all our Stuff? Stuff can’t make you happy, talk to you when you’re sad, or come with you easily on a trip around the world( Expedia.ca’s gnomes notwithstanding ). It’s all about the people, people: friends, family and yes, even some co-workers( who can become like family, of course ). Don’t feed the Stuff Syndrome; be a people person instead.
Both bleak and beautiful, this is a pic of rainbow that appeared within the first few weeks of my arriving in Victoria. I’d never seen such a clear one before in my life, and I can’t say I’ve seen a larger one since – plus, it’s a double rainbow, so that’s twice as special. I took it as a sign I was supposed to be here, and I still think it means something, though I’ve yet to figure out what.

Dec 11 – Fearing Change

A whole lotta heavy this week, weighing on my mind. I know the holidays are times where people tend to become down, and I fight against that – but I can feel it happening all the same. I’ve a lot to be thankful for, as I could be in a lot worse places in life – yet it’s human nature to ignore their blessings and list all the things They Could Have or Could Have Been. Kind of Scrooge-like, in a way, where he is visited by ghosts of his past, present and future to show him he has to change. In my case, I like who I am… but it’s not doing anything for me, or getting me anywhere, so what’s the point, really? Does it matter? These and other existential questions have kept my mind ticking over into the wee hours this week, with no answers forthcoming that I can see.
This is an image I really, really like, both for the humour and for the message. Don’t be afraid to do what you want… but be prepared for the consequences. Penguins, you may note, have tiny little flipper legs and so can’t run fast at all. I hope this one has a bolt-hole in the ice ready off-camera…

Dec 12 – Life’s a Beach

A good chunk of today was used up playing COD: Black Ops, which had its moments but overall really annoyed me – seriously. I don’t know what it is, but my trigger levels seem to be lowered when I play the game and I end up feeling angry / frustrated for most of the day. Must be symptoms of SAD or emotional instability( unlike me, that )which are manifest through my getting my ass handed to me online. Which I suppose would frustrate anyone; going up against the world and finding you suck more than you win each time can be grinding to the ego. I try to learn from my games, but most times I just can’t get my game on. Suck It Up, Princess.
Yes, that’s me( before I lost about 30 lbs )leanin’ on a log on a beach on the western shores of the island, which are all full of washed-up wood. It’s great stuff: good for seats, artistic carvings and furniture, though you’re not supposed to take much of it and definitely NOT to use it for firewood. The myriad shapes lend themselves to hours of wandering and discovery, usually best with a friend or family.

Blog’s shorter this week because I didn’t feel like noting much there, other than a few of my less grim thoughts, and because Samuel asked for pictures. Obliged.

Second Cars, Smartphones and Suicidal Laptops

 

The word of the week is frustration. Because we all feel it, sooner or later, at various intensities.

Dec 13 – Flossing Cars

One of those strange days today: leave the house at 10am and don't get back until 5pm... *sigh* I went into town( early )for a dental appointment, where I was told again what nice teeth I have( all the better to bite you with! )but of course to keep flossing.. is there anyone out there who flosses every day? The rest of the day was spent trucking around various places, some shopping, some bill-paying, etc. I'm still not thrilled with the idea of purchasing a second vehicle, considering that I really want to move back into the city proper and so take advantage of the bus system / cycling paths. Second cars aren't cheap – there's a Plymouth Neon down the road for $1,700 but I'm really, really leery of that particular brand...

Dec 14 - Escapism

I won't go into why today was so frustrating, other than that a combo of work-related stupidities and personal emotional states made me want to label today 'Monday Too' ... it sucked, but it eventually ended, as all days do. Having a home to retreat to, a place of refuge safe from the world( until the phone rings )where you can put all those Things That Bother You outside the door and lock it tight: that's nice. There's a show on Shaw cable called Man Caves that I've yet to succumb to subscribing too; it's tempting, but I'm not sure I want to know how much these guys have spent on their retreat.

Dec 15 – Early Again?

Today I did the early-for-work thing again, spending lunch( and some small monies )at McDonald's. It was a rainy day, clouds frowning down from above, right up until I left. Then the sun smiled down on me while I walked to work – it was nice, I admit, yet would have been nicer to bask in while I waiting in the windows beside the Golden Arches. Can't have it all, I suppose – it was a quiet, pleasant lunch, all the more so because my timing meant that the place wasn't crawling with kids as it usually is. Understandably, it IS McDonald's, with a giant play area, so crowds of tot-toting parents are inevitable... but the occasional day without is something to be enjoyed and remembered.

Dec 16 – Telus Resolution

The crazy cell-phone saga looks to be something that will be resolved shortly, thanks to a few more phone calls this week, including one to my lawyer. Seems that Telus neglected to mention that once the LG IQ phone is 'officially' received by their Returns Depot, then the $500.00 charge on my account will be removed. AND the contract will be revoked, returning me to a month-by-month plan – which is what I wanted anyway since this all went south. Once that's done with, all I have to do is figure out how to get a new( -er ) phone without paying through the nose for it for something that I don't really plan on using more than a year or so, until the tablet market really takes off. So we'll see; I just want this stupidity with Telus to be over with and forget about the LG IQ entirely.

Dec 17 – Knowing Things

Do you know a lot about a little, or a little about a lot? If you're the latter, then you can be considered a 'Renaissance Man' ( or woman ). I'm all about the latter as well; I like to think it makes me a more well-rounded person, as I don't have my nose so deep in one speciality that all I can smell is the ink on the pages of a professional journal. Sure, it's not easy to make a living like that... but you won't be at a loss for conversation at a Christmas party, either. For those of you with an iPhone( or follow the PC links )you can look at these apps for those who need to know everything. Some fascinating stuff in there; brings back memories of Trivial Pursuit from my youth... does anyone still have that game?

Dec 18 – Vultan Lives!

Though they're doomed by the rise in smartphones, standalone GPS devices still do what they do very well – the Nuvi 250 I bought when I arrived in Victoria got me around handily until I got to know the area. Updating maps is VERY expensive for the things though, to the point where it's almost cheaper to buy a new GPS every 3 years or so. Still, there are some cool things you can do with your GPS, depending on the device brand... like adding Brian Blessed's voice! TomTom owners can hear his stentorian tones blasting out directions as they drive, as though Vultan from Flash Gordon were sitting next to them in the car. Makes you wonder about having other celebrity voices added in the future...

Dec 19 – Laptop Suicide!

Wake up, laptop... wake up! Laptop? Are you OK? Uh oh... my 2-week only drive has futzed itself, refusing to boot Windows( not that I blame it for that ). I couldn't do much until I returned from a busy work day, but a little diagnosis revealed that the drive boots up, things it's blank, and sits there – no sign of the 500 gigs of data stored on it. So... tomorrow it's a call to Seagate Tech Support to find out why their product has decided to suicide to quickly after my purchasing it, and what the recommend for getting my system back. I think I may also make it a dual-boot, so that if one OS decides to take a dirt nap, I'll still have the other one available – pretty easy to do that these days. I'd be freaking right now, if I didn't have a full backup saved from 2 weeks ago that I can use to restore the thing... in about 8 hours. I hope.

This blog was written entirely on a hand calculator at McDonald's and transferred upside-down to a notepad Monday afternoon for posting online. Don't ask about the spell checker. :-) It's a brief blog too, due to the original copy being lost on my futzed laptop... and the fact that I don't have a whole lot to say this week, really. No pictures either, for that matter.

Days off, Dames and Drives

The word of the week is perspective: it can always use a change.

Nov 29 – Call Of Contact

A day off should not start with the work cell ringing at 8am... but it did. Could I fill in at Millstream, as the manager there had injured his back and was on the way to the hospital? Sure, why not; nobody else could, as his co-worker was over in Vancouver and no-one else available in the area had training with the open-concept store. In I went, and was run off my feet for the day – of course. “No good deed goes unpunished,” as they say... also, the phrase “Nice guys finish last” keeps going through my head of late. I knew a guy in university who confided to me that he had decided to become a jerk, in order to get ahead. I met him again a few years later; he was married and had a decent job... but he looked and acted very angry. Maybe getting what he wanted didn't turn out like he thought it would, while acting like a jerk? I could have told him that.

What did ppl do before email, texting and Facebook to keep in regular contact? I printed up the family Xmas letter today for my mom, spruced up( hollied? )with some nice colour graphics and tucked into cheery holiday envelopes. I can't recall the last paper letter I wrote to anyone( especially since I write this blog that anyone can check on at any time )as it seems like such a slow way to communicate. Nowadays we count the minutes from the time an email or text hits the 'net – we consider it the height of rudeness if it takes until the next day for a response! Weird.

Nov 30 – Dead Phones

I filled in at the Millstream branch for the second day in a row today; so much for a day off. I was late in getting there, as I had an appointment to go see someone about funeral arrangements – yes, I know what you're thinking: morbid. But I think about these sorts of things( insurance, wills, etc )to ensure my family is taken care of in case I'm suddenly out of the picture; responsibility. It wasn't as expensive as I thought: for about $100/month over a few years, a plot of dirt was all mine. I'm not for leaving a lot behind, as in a few generations the only people coming by would be those seeking to trace ancestors – I'd love to stick my head in a freezer, but that's incredibly pricey and there's no guarantees. I don't want to end up as some component in a future tax preparation bio-computer or something... and now I know about the costs involved.

I called Telus again later in the evening to see about brokering a phone deal – they said no dice, suckah: yer on a contract for 2 years so man up. Guess it's back to my old phone, which isn't ‘smart’ but gets the job done. Oh, and the cheap little bluetooth keyboard I bought from eBay doesn’t work with my old phone( it's fine with a co-worker's newer iPhone )but doesn’t matter as I’m not texting much any more at all to a certain someone. No smartphone needed for me now, though I’d like to have one sooner rather than later, before I get a tablet in a year or two. *sigh*

Dec 1 – No Malls For Me!

Welcome to the Christmas Crazy Time; I'm so glad I’m not part of it any more. My personal rule for the holidays is if I haven't already purchased presents by today, then I don't set foot in a mall for the rest of the month. Big box stores are all right, but again I won't go near a mall for the entire month – the stress, the traffic, the harried looks on the faces of both shoppers and clerks alike... no thanks. I've been shopping online for years, and I don't have very many people to buy for now anyway; I've never really done a Secret Santa with friends, or even Xmas cards. Odd, now that I think about it – time to start a new tradition, maybe?

After work today, I felt a little worn out, but oddly inspired to do some tech work. So I burned a bootable copy of Fedora Linux 13 and installed it on the old laptop. Tada! Now I can dual-boot the old crate in about 120 seconds, compared to the 15 minutes it takes Windows Vista to haul itself into the system's hardware. Linux runs a helluva lot faster and is perfect for websurfing or word processing... heck, there's literally millions of free programs out there for the Linux OS. When I get some time( make some time )I'll acquaint myself a little better with the OS, as it's tricky to get your head around things like mounting disks, command line parameters and the like. So now the old laptop is the perfect coffee-shop companion: pop it out, boot it up and be surfing in seconds, not quarter-hours. As it should be!

Dec 2 – I met a girl; she was nuts.

Well-met... I think? My day off started with an early appointment at a local mechanic's to get the flat tire fixed and the brakes seen to. Just as I saw down to wait, a gorgeous girl walked in( let's call her Tia )with car problems. Since it was going to be a while for both our cars to be worked on, we got to talking... and ended up taking a walk over to Starbuck's, along with her dog. In briefly getting to know her, I got some sobering perspective on life's problems, as she had some doozies – she was sweet, beautiful, friendly... and had more personal issues than anyone I've ever met. A biggie was religion, which I won't get into here... but by the time a few hours had passed, my own problems seemed to pale in comparison to this lovely girl's,  such that I was shocked she could function day to day( she doesn't / can’t work ). A lesson in perspective, indeed; seeing the people I do at work every day also reminds me that I don't know much about them, or their own stories, just those things that come up when we interact. So there you go: look outside the box of your life.

What did I do with the rest of my Only Day Off? Well, I popped a new hybrid 500gb hard drive into my newer laptop, achieving success after some hours of tricky work – now I have space for things again( like iTunes shows! ). I didn't have so much luck with putting the old drive I’d removed into my parents laptop, mainly thanks to Vista's quirks... many hours of copying data were wasted due to a poorly-documented TRIAL version of a bit of software I used; damned freebie luck. I soothed my frayed nerves by playing NWN for a great few hours, which were like old times thanks to the arrival of an old friend: Gwen! Years rolled back and we adventured like of old... it was very special.

Dec 3 – Glowing Soap?

Oh, fer; stop it, downstairs exercise nut! Why someone feels the need to use a treadmill at 12:15am, I have no idea. Sure, it's a free country, do what you like... but if you wake your neighbours, they'll get cranky and Do Something about it. Grrrr. I assuaged my anger by getting dropped off for work early and having lunch at McDonalds( a nice healthy chicken wrap and root beer! ). Did you know they've tricked the place out with contemporary colours, lots of stone, even a fireplace... plus free WiFi set at the WPA encryption level? Nice! I happily sat at the window watching cars go by under the cloudy sky, in the relative quiet of the post-lunch rush in the very spacious restaurant. It's fairly close to work, cheap, and I can get Things Done there. They even have a patio heater outside, though I'd save that for a less-wet day in-season. All in all, a pleasant lunch.

To distract you from days like today, I suggest surfing on over to PerpetualKid.com – they have tons of things that will make you smile as your inner child squeals with glee. Take for example, their Bacon section, or my personal favourite: Radioactive Soap. Just imagine leaving said soap for a house guest to find in the morning; joy!

Dec 4 – Minty Fresh Lighted Truck Laptops!

Finally! After waiting for a year, Mint.com is now available in Canada! For those of you unfamiliar with the site, it’s designed to integrate tightly( and securely )with your bank accounts online – all of them. It’s the perfect way to centralize all your finances, so that Mint.com can see the Big Picture and help you make your finances work for you. I was a bit leery when I first heard about it 2 years ago, but after using it this week I have to say it’s easy, powerful and has given me new insight into my personal finances. I’m sure that as time goes on, I’ll use it more to get a better handle on my financial future. Best of all? It’s free!!!

After work, I was home for a bit, getting my parent’s laptop data backup started – I’d given up trying earlier in the week until I found a decent program to do it: Paragon Drive Backup Pro. About 2 hours and the drive was backed up; I set it to the task of restoring the saved data to a faster / larger drive I’d pulled from my own laptop and headed out. Where, you ask? Well, I walked down the mountain( for the first time! )about 4.5 km / 3500 steps( thanks, iPod Nano! )to go see the IEOA Lighted Trucks Parade that takes place every year in Victoria. Dozens of heavy trucks are decorated to the nines with lights and paraded all across the lower island, ending up at the Western Speedway just at the base of Bear Mountain. I arrived a little after 8 after nearly an hour’s walk; perfect timing as the trucks arrived soon after I got there. Everything from big-rigs to dump trucks to delivery vans to fire engines cruised past, all individually decorated. I recorded it all, though the low-light limits of my camera meant the subtle details were lost. It was a cold but enjoyable few hours outside, and I certainly got my exercise climbing back UP the mountain later. Whew!

Dec 5 – Another Day Off Derailed

The life of a manager stinks most days; today was a good example. My newest CSR called me at 9am saying she( and her mom )have stomach flu... so she can’t work today. I keep track of these things, so I took her at face value and got ready to go in. Turns out it was a busy, busy day and I got very little ‘extra’ done for all that I tried to take advantage of an ‘extra’ / early day of work this week. It’s frustrating to be told to trim hours, avoid O/T if at all possible and ‘run lean’ ... yet on crazy-busy days what does one tell the customers who are kept waiting due to a lack of staff? Hypocrites – you can only save so much for so long by running lean before people will go elsewhere rather than wait for 30 mins in line. At least I was home for dinner and didn’t have to stay late again to catch up after the whirlwind...

Tonight I watched Up with my parents, opting for some oft-put-off family time. It was a stellar choice; I wasn’t expecting the film to be as sad and poignant as it was – I purposefully hadn’t read up on it as I’d heard it was great and so didn’t want to spoil things.

I’ve switched from using MS Word to create my blog posts to the Windows Live Writer this week. So far, it’s powerful, takes less editing overall and lets me connect directly to the blog. More as I get to using it; now it’s a-bed for an early day. *yawn*

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. :-)