Guys, Green and Gaming

The word of the week is funtastic. Which isn't a word.

Jan 24 - Nice Guys and Gorillas

A few days ago Yahoo put up an article( via LavaLife )about Nice Guys Finishing Last. An alternate title might have been ‘Men With No Spine Don’t Score’ which may or may not be true. What are your thoughts on this? Seems to be several hundred comments on the article since it was posted; some poignant, some just poisonous. Being what I consider to be a Nice Guy myself, I have to wonder if perhaps some folk lack a life outside of looking for a life... for when you take away the daily details, is there anything to you, sometime defining, outside of your work and family? Or is it a blank? Maybe we should leave it up to the animals of the planet; they’re evolving faster than you think:

Jan 25 – It’s a Green Winter

All the snow’s gone here in Victoria, even here in the ‘northern’ climes outside of the city. Rain’s moved in, along with some fairly foggy days at times... but with the temperatures hovering in the high single-digits, it’s fairly bearable. Joggers are out in light jackets (or less in some cases) and people consider ‘bundled up’ to be wearing a scarf AND gloves with a fall jacket. The lack of snow and the tons of green plant life around (mosses and coniferous trees, mostly) means that it feels like fall here, not winter, though the short days and lack of sunlight do take their toll. Still, not shoveling the white stuff or slipping on ice every other step is something I’ve still got to get used to every year, compared to Ontario’s knee-deep brown-and-grey winters. I’ve even got the heat OFF in my room; it’s 25 degrees and being heated by the new PC – another bonus.

Jan 26 - Best Times to Buy Stuff

Every year, you see sales come and go for seasonal items. A lot of things are seasonal, when it comes down to it – prices vary over the course of a year. So when IS the best time of year to buy things, like winter clothes, TV’s or other things? LifeHacker has a great chart that spells out precisely that – go have a look and save yourself some dough by buying off-season... and if it’s on sale, even better!

Jan 27 – On Gaming

On my day off today, the first thing I did was sell my copy of COD: Black Ops. I’d noticed I was becoming more and more frustrated while playing it solo, which is the exact opposite concept behind playing games: they should be entertaining ways to relieve stress, not add to it. So I made the decision to can the game, as I came away from more sessions angry than not, which sucked after a long day. I think what’s so frustrating to me is that in certain games like COD, you’d think you’d get better with practice( and I did, to a point )but most every game has hardcore players in it that hand you your ass in a sling over and over. That gets old fast; nobody likes to lose or come in at the low end of the scoreboard too many times before tossing in the towel and trying something else. The rest of my day was a mix of things, mainly going through mountains of old bills and papers, something I’ve put off doing for a while. It was somewhat cathartic to shred piles of them; like removing old worries in a way.

Jan 28 – Humming Media

The new PC is humming along nicely, even with Windows Vista forced upon it... Win7 is still being reserved in case I can fix my laptop. Sadly, I’ve come to realize that if I go through with my plan to copy most of my DVD TV series onto the box, I’ll need about 15TB( Terabytes )of storage space. Yikes! There go my plans... the largest drives available right now are 2TB in size, and I can fit a max of 8 in my system if I condense things – and at $80.00 a pop for a ‘cheap’ drive of that size, we’re talking some serious cash outlay. So for now I’ll put on the series that I’m most likely to want to watch at the drop of a hat( Babylon 5, Stargate, Robotech )and leave the rest for when I can afford to expand. It’s a good setup though, routing things perfectly to the big screen – nice to have planned ahead and have it work out, for once.

Jan 29 - Robert Jordan and Beer

I zoomed through the first few chapters of The Towers Of Midnight today, the second-last book in the Wheel of Time series by the late Robert Jordan, being finished by Brandon Sanderson. A lot of loose ends are being tied up rather neatly, but I want to go back and re-read the entire series from the beginning before the final book comes out next year. There’s a few sites on the net( somewhere )that have threads following the dozen or so major plot-lines of the series - the details are foggy to me now after all these years, so I’d like to brush up on it to enhance my reading experience before the final book. It was a nice way to spend a Saturday night, as escapism really tucks you into those other worlds and insulates you( for a time )from the lackluster stress-filled days of one’s ugly reality some weeks. Well, so does beer, but a book is much more cost effective and far less likely to give you a hangover. Plus there’s a much faster way to pour beer that’s been developed: from the bottom UP!

Jan 30 – Numbed

Another busy, busy day at work, enough so that again I got little done except daily tasks. I like to keep track of the busier day’s numbers to put things in perspective – today, for example, I served 1 customer an average of every 6.5 minutes, for 7 hours. Not counting answering phones, of course. Anything more than 1 per 10 minutes is Busy in my book, as it leaves little time for aught else. I came home tired and in a crappy mood, despite my best efforts to stave it off. A good meal and some time spent online with an old friend gaming in NWN improved that mood, despite the fact that we both ended up dying stupidly in a random encounter – it happens when you’re tired and still angry. Making mistakes is apparently what I’m best at, which is a terrible skill to put on your resume` - and don’t give me that crap about you have to make a mistake in order to learn from it. If that were the case, I’d be the Albert Einstein of Mistakes already at my age. Good night.

Feels like Spring here and next week is all sunshine! Hope it helps to improve my mood...

Vacations, Vista and Vexations

The word of the week is family. Specifically: sister!

Jan 17 - Not Working Week

Ahhh, vacation! Not something that you want to take lightly, as you only get so much time every year. For me, the last few years have been split between regular and ‘working’ vacations – where I spent my time moving my family and sundry stuff around. Now that we’re settled for a bit, I’m thinking my next few vacations will be ‘me’ time – really, just me, as I don’t have anyone to take a vacation with out here. Going back to Niagara is always an option, but Lucas mentioned a Cuba trip some time ago and that’s stuck in my head since – never been, kinda want to. It’s deplorable that two out of three people never end up using their vacation days each year and I fall into that category; by the end of 2011 I’ll have four weeks of vacation to use up, so I’d better start planning now. I hear that Bhutan is the new Shangri-La, with lots of great mountains...and they’ve just banned smoking entirely!

Jan 18 - New Computer!

Talk about good timing; the motherboard for my new PC arrived today, allowing me to start putting everything together. I’ve been ‘frankensteining’ my computers for years, but this time the only parts  I’ve kept for re-use are the giant blue case and a few hard drives – I’ll add some serious storage next year, I think, as it just keeps getting cheaper the longer you wait. So most of today was spent happily unpacking boxes of tech and plugging it all together... but really most of it was spent waiting for Windows Vista to update itself. Argh – I’ve decided for now to use my old Vista licence to run the media PC, as I still hold out some slim hope of getting my Win7 laptop to run. For now, I’m going to enjoy my first all-new PC in about 10 years, something I’ve really been looking forward to for a long, long time. Hello, reliability and hello using the big-screen TV as a primary monitor – sweet!

Jan 19 - On a beach in January in Canada

Today my sister and I took the time to go down to Esquimalt Lagoon to take advantage of the sudden sunshine that showed up this morning. The wind had died off too, so by 10am it was perfect weather to trot down the sand at the ocean’s edge; we barely needed jackets it was so nice. Near the end of our san sojourn we came across a huge redwood tree washed up on the beach; the wood was the colour of blood and the thing was easily fifty feet long. Hard to believe something that big had been taken by the sea and washed ashore so easily. The beaches here are just covered in washed-up wood; it’s quite a sight to see if you’re used to beaches from elsewhere in the world, especially on inland lakes. Here's the tree - it looks like really rare steak, to me:




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Jan 20 - So long for now, sis!

I saw my sister off at noon today for her flight at the Victoria Airport; it’s nice having a ‘small’ International Airport here on the Island. Much like Hamilton’s airport, it’s big enough to get the job done but not so massive that you feel lost in the place half the time( both have exactly one Timmy’s too )/ I remember all too well the confusion of Pearson International in Toronto, which even with the demolition of the old Terminal One still makes my head spin to try and navigate around the spiralling motorways that surround the place. I’m not an inveterate traveller, so airports will as like always freak me out a little; Calgary’s was like that, but that’s because their toilets were possessed... sheesh! In any case, it was fabulous to have my sister her for so long and I hope to do so again sooner rather than later. Miss ya, sis!

Jan 21 - Paper Cuts

Ack... paper, lots of it, all over the place here. I’d meant to do something about that this week( along with a lot of other things )but the paper really stymies me. I tend to keep things longer than I should, especially bills – weird, when I have a scanner and could just digitize things. But who has the time to spend hours a week doing that? I seem to recall more than a few ‘Digital Organization’ programs over the years that purported to be able to make your life paper-free, but they never mention the time it takes to get all that stuff into your computer. Scanners still aren’t instant, as they take about a minute to run down a document into digital form, then you have to name and file it. More work to make time for...

Jan 22 - BOINC!

What to do with my last day of vacation? Well, a whole lot of nothing, as it turns out. I’ve been very tired of late, so I spent the day doing various activities including some Xbox time and cleaning house on the new PC – lots of stuff on various drives that needed tidying / deleting / finding a home for. I also set up BOINC again on the system, as I have the twin advantages now of a 4-core CPU that is also a low-power design. So I can run BOINC 24/7 again without using a ton of power or generating a ton of heat; that was always a problem in the summer to keep the PC cool, even with 7 fans on the tower total. I still hope for that ‘eureka!’ discovery after running SETI@Home for over a decade now; possibly being a co-discoverer of alien life still makes me ponder some days. Damn cool stuff we can do now.

Jan 23 – Stories are better than people?

My first day back at work after my vacation... it wasn’t horrible, but there’s always that one person who manages to ruin the good feeling the other twenty people engendered. As usual, it had to do with misconceptions and attitude; misconceptions both. I learned a valuable lesson, he didn’t and will likely continue to view the world as out to get him – I feel sorry for him in a way, as he’ll continue to be that way. No loss to me – check out NotAlwaysRight.com for some more amusing anecdotes. Reminds me of why I need to change jobs this year; the sooner I get to a better job, the better, as my stress levels continue to ratchet ever-higher week to week at work. Too many straws and too weak a camel’s back.

Sunday evening was spent rather pleasantly; after a so-so day I spent hours chatting with three of my good friends online, helping one flesh out a story idea of hers. The wonders of internet chat... and a good way to close out the week.

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*