Foxes, Fridges and FPS

The word of the week is obviate. Check it if you feel it necessary.

March 21 - Expenditure Looming

Pressure to turn the 'old' car into a 'new' car is mounting quickly, so much so that I think we'll have it before another month is past. I do NOT like being under that sort of timeline when it comes to something that is the second-largest purchase people make on average( first being a home )so that's creating some tension. On the bright side, I've been using sites like CarQuotes.ca and CanadianBlackBook.ca to arm myself with dealer costs and get good advice, on top of what I already know. It's a damn shame that it's still a game when it comes to buying a car, as it's buyer beware - it's shocking how little people prepare on average before going in to sign a car deal or a mortgage. Just hand your money over to the bank in either case with a smile... sheesh.

March 22 - Religion

Here's something that surprised me: a report that says religion may become extinct in nine countries soon.. and Canada's on the list. Now, I grew up Catholic, went to a high school of the same faith and attended church up into my teens... but it never stuck. Blame what you will, but religion has never figured large in my life and I greatly respect those who have found it to be a cornerstone of theirs. Some people are better able to integrate it into their lives, some aren't... at least I haven't put my religious affiliation down as 'Jedi' as more than a few people have been doing in the last decade. Very odd.

March 23 - Foxy Upgrades

FireFox 4: I upgraded today( as did over ten million people, and counting! )as I've used FireFox fairly consistently over the last ten years as my web browser of choice. I spend a fair deal of my internet time on the web, so having a solid and customizable browser really helps make the daily experience more efficient. C|net( who have also been around forever, in a good way )has a great intro to FireFox4, which showcases some of the new features to make browsing better. I have dozens of tabs open at once usually( up to a hundred some weeks )so I can follow along my interests as I zoom along and refer back to sites / articles of note later on. So far, FireFox4 has been more than helpful in keeping things grouped properly, so much so that I've been referring less and less to my saved bookmarks. Which is something, as I have about 5,000 or so that I go through once in a while to see if any sites have vanished - which they do... the 'net is always changing, which is its strength and source of frustration for many browsers.

March 24 - Fridge!

Time for something fun: how about a fridge magnet? Not an ordinary magnet, mind you, but one that turns your fridge from Awfully Boring to Awesome. I actually have an awesome fridge where I am right now; it dispenses ice and filtered water at the push of a button! Except that we took out the ice maker because it made WAY too much noise at night, ALL the time, and took up too much freezer room. The filtered water was nice - for about a month, then the 'change filter' light came on and it stopped working. A lengthy search of the internet found that the cheapest place to buy said specialized filters from charges around $100.00 for two; even eBay doesn't have the things available for much less.

So we've been drinking tap water. Delicious, tested dozens of times a day, and quite cold. So much for the features of the 'high end' fridge ...

March 25 - Nanosuit!

After a non-eventful( thankfully )day at work, I picked up a copy of Crysis2 on the way home and gave it a whirl. For the most part, I liked the game due to its different pacing: you have to think about your actions in terms of the moment - go armour? Go stealth? Back off or attack? You only have limited power from your 'nanosuit' so managing its abilities is crucial... or you get fragged. A lot. Kind of like the other FPS( First Person Shooter )games I've played... the only ones I've kept are Halo2 and BattleField: Bad Company2. So perhaps the'2' in this title means I'll keep it as well? We shall see; I need to get more practice in so I can stop hitting the wrong buttons at the right time - that's worthy of a few screams of anguished frustration and a desire to armour my TV in plexiglass to avoid any controller-hurling fits.

March 26 - On Hammocks

I gave myself this weekend off, to prepare for next week when I'm short a CSR as they're on vacation - which they need, just like the rest of us. It's a lovely day here: sun's out, around 10 degrees C, and no sign of snow anywhere for almost 2 weeks now - s'why I love Victoria! I sat inside at the Bean today and baked myself next to their fireplace; the thing pumps out enough heat to keep my tea HOT just sitting on the stone ledge over a foot away from the gas flames. You want to bet that it won't be on in the summer due to the A/C costs, despite how lovely the flames look. No, today was all about relaxing and recovering my mental equilibrium; I could feel the knots in my back loosen as all I had to think about was what the next relaxing activity I could do was - not including naps. I did experience a moment's twinge when I thought about my old hammock, but I never DID have a quiet enough place to hang it before; it would be perfect here, and I have my folding one now, which isn't quite as cool in the summer as the rope one was:

March 27 - Treasure Island

I spent part of my second day off today attending a local performance of Treasure Island, as one of my co-workers was playing the part of Ben Gunn, the crazed man marooned on Skeleton Island. I was accompanied by someone that I've been growing more interested in as well these last few months, though I wouldn't put today down in any way as a date - I have NO true idea of her level of interest in me at this point. The play was put on by Four Seasons Musical Theatre( have a look for a brief video clip of the show! )which did a bang-up job on the whole production. The music was excellent( live piano! )the costumes were varied, the sets were robust and different enough to convey location and the acting was mostly solid. The exceptions were the young lead of Jim, whose inexperience showed on stage but not to the point of sinking the ship, so to speak. Also, some cast members didn't have the voice to 'punch through' the music or over other cast members, but all in all it was a lively, lovely performance that swept you along for the ride. It reminded me of my grade school years when we have The Carousel Players visit the school a few times a year, whose performances always included the audience - indeed, some shows had ALL of the audience in them! I'm hard-pressed to remember details, but I DO remember lots of colour, lots of laughs and the tiny spark of interest in live theatre it lit that has remained with me to this day, even if I'm not a stage-actor myself.

Another week gone, rolling along towards spring, when I'll soon be able to websurf from the comfort of my balcony. Not the hammock though; that's just silly.

Plans, People and Pain

The word of the week is quotidian. Because it sounds cooler than it is.

March 14 -Taxez

It used to be that I was afraid of tax time, or at least very wary - it's like that for a lot of people, as many don't understand how taxes work. Having dealt with filing taxes with people for six years now at work, I can say that the majority of people have no clue and simply expect large sums of money back with no aforethought or preparation... then get annoyed when they owe $$. I'll leave it for another blog entry to explain the ins and outs of ensuring you are likely to GET a return - there's lots you can do. Myself, I just make sure I pay as little as possible to DO my own taxes... like using Turbotax, formerly QuickTax. I've already filed my own this year for less than twenty bucks, and I didn't pay a cent to figure it all out beforehand - love that website. It's worked for me for five years now, lets me plug in all sorts of numbers and save everything to my PC drive when I'm done. I highly recommend it to anyone who likes to see how their tax numbers work as you enter the info, and see if you can make your return better by playing with your options - for free all the way!

March 15 - Painful Cars

Looks like it's time for a new vehicle... but not for me. Today my mom revealed that she's in a LOT more pain than she's been letting on due to her knee joints, so much so that it's excruciating for her to get in and out of the current Mazda3. Which means we now have to search for a deal on a Mazda5, which she has no trouble with as the seat is much higher-set. Which also means my carefully-laid plans for financial parity are going out the window again for another five years or so, give or take. Makes me want to go buy a nice solid bench-vice and stick my head into it to see how much more pressure I can take before my head implodes. Solve one problem and another is right there waiting to jump you for your wallet. Maybe I should just sell off everything I own and go find a nice mountain to become a hermit on... I'm already halfway there where I'm living now.

March 16 - Prisoners of Gravity

Oh joy! After years of going without, now millions can enjoy Prisoners Of Gravity directly from the source on TV Ontario! Up until now, only a few low-quality episodes of this landmark sci-fi talk show were available on YouTube and pained the eye to watch. Now TVO has put dozens of episodes up on the web on their homepage, all of them in excellent quality that will suck you in and spit you out a happier, wiser person... or at least entertain you. I loved Prisoners Of Gravity when it came out, not only because it used the then-cutting-edge Amiga computer for the graphical touches, but because it had ALL the coolest sci-fi / fantasy authors of the day on there. Neil Gaiman, Michael Moorcock and Spider Robinson were all recurring guests, as was Robert. J. Sawyer and many others. Go. Watch. Now!

March 17 - Scammy Bracelets

At work, I often deal with fraudsters, scam artists, petty criminals and the results that these scum have on regular people. For every heart-warming story you see about people giving back to the world, there's a dozen( or more )untold ones where people were bilked by others with no moral or conscience. Take, for example, the makers of the Q-Ray 'pain relief' bracelet - a total placebo product that made millions for its creators while doing nothing for the purchasers. Thankfully, the makers of the Q-Ray were taken to court and fined heftily - read through the article and you'll laugh in delight at what the presiding judge had to say about it concerning the effectiveness of the bracelet( hint: it involves aliens! ).

March 18 - Half the day at work

Ack! Another example of why being a manager stinks: one of my CSR's had an allergic reaction to some medication yesterday night, and as they were scheduled to open today... you get the picture. Instead of sleeping in( slightly )after my 2 days off( luxurious! )I rushed into work to open the store( late )and spent a total of 12 hours there with an hour off for lunch( unpaid )and a few sanity breaks interspersed. Mercifully it wasn't an insanely busy day, but I was still beat at the end. It's also a good example of corporate doubletalk: I catch flack for every hour of O/T paid out, but when someone's sick it becomes VERY apparent that we don't have ENOUGH staff to cover. In effect, the company is squeezing all it can by reducing payroll costs to the bare minimum to serve customers, and this has its fallout when things go loopy. In comparison, the Tim Horton's next door has TWENTY people working some days... makes me wonder what their monthly revenues are - I should have paid more attention when I worked there last.

March 19 -  Moons

Tonight was the 'Supermoon' - where the moon was 30,000km closer to the earth at apogee. Many astronomers( but not astrologers )went gaga( not Lady )over this. Me, not so much - I've seen the moon on many a clear cold night through a telescope, and it's pretty... but dead. How much more interesting would it be to have a moon with clouds, or ice, or anything but a stark white face that never changes? I've a fondness for a scifi series by David Weber  that started with a book called Mutineer's Moon, as it postulates that our moon is not really a moon, but a gigantic spaceship trapped in orbit for millennia... and no, it has nothing to do with the Death Star. Grab a copy if you can, it's a very worthy read, or just read the first 24 chapters right at Baen Books online!

March 20 -  Spring... springs.

Today is the first official day of Spring, and for the most part it lived up to it here in Victoria - and I was stuck inside, of course! The sun was out and the clouds were few until very late in the afternoon, so I saw rafts of people moving around outside with their jackets open or just in shirtsleeves; glorious. Many people commented that it 'smelled like Spring' outside, and my brain kicked up a little factoid: Spring smells like it does because of bacteria in the soil - don't believe me? Have a look here and wonder at the, er, wonders of science. Search that same site for answers to all sorts of pithy questions you may have about the world around you, without having to travel to your local science centre; score one for the 'net.

So that's it for another week here in BC - I'm really looking forward to the good weather to get out on my cycle, as well as do some foot exploration hereabouts. Maybe even some trails?

Grief, Gaming and Michel Gagné

The word of the week is meandering.

March 7 -Fading Details

Tristan has been gone a week now, and I'm still not sure of how I'm feeling. On the one hand, I KNOW that he's gone... I can leave my bedroom door closed, and don't have to watch underfoot for him unexpectedly. It's damn hard though, knowing that he's gone; he's not there to greet me at the door, or compete for space on my lap with the keyboard, or wake me up in the morning with a purr and a spattering of happy drool. I have to fight to remember these things, even so soon after his passing, as he's NOT THERE to do them anymore. This is what it means to lose a part of your life: remembering the details that fade so fast with time, and realizing that the hole they've left can be painfully ignored, but never forgotten... because to forget means that all the richness Tristan brought to my life will have faded.

March 8 - Writing

Self-publishing my stories has never seemed like a viable way to make a living to me - until now. A friend sent me a link to a young author who has managed to sell several hundred thousand copies of her books in less than a year - an amazing record and allowing her to become fairly well-off in a short period of time solely from the scratching of her pen, albeit a digital one. A writer always wonders how and where people will pick up their work; you wonder if you'll stick in a reader's mind for a long time, or be relegated to their 'read later if I find time' shelf, so to speak. Either classification doesn't guarantee a decent income for the author, either.

March 9 -Shadow Puppets

A friend of a friend of mine, Michel Gagne, has released a gameplay trailer based on his amazing Shadow Puppet animations . It's called Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet, and it's incredibly cool! Have a look:

If that didn't make your brain spin around in giddy happiness, please seek professional help ASAP...

March 10 - Ultimate Bedroom

I had a fairly small and mundane bedroom growing up - albeit one with superhero wallpaper and toys covering every usable surface. I didn't spend a whole lot of time in there anyway; the world outside was my playground and I made a lot of use of the nearby ravine for many an adventure with my friends. However, if I HAD had my wish granted for an 'ultimate bedroom' then THIS would be it - I mean, seriously, who wouldn't want to live like a pirate in your own home? So cool!

March 11 - Quakes!

Living on the coast of BC, I was reminded again that unlike solid ol' ON, they have earthquakes here. Today Japan felt the same tectonic plate that I'm on shift - in a massive way. It really brought home the face that we live on a thin crust of solid matter floating ever so slowly over a molten ball of rock that is the core of this planet, and at any time it can shrug us around. A site that you might want to visit to prepare yourself and your family for such a quake( or other disasters )is 72hours.org - you can find sensible lists of supplies and disaster advice to ensure you know what to do when the lights are out and the world is not in a happy place.

March 12 - YADO( Yet Another Day Off )

I'm still feeling very blah, prone to bouts of 'meh' and the like, so I've been treating myself to long sessions with my sunlamp and finding time for naps on my days off - usually more than one, but not TOO long or it really messes with your energy levels. Today was a case in point: I spent some time online playing Battlefield: Bad Company 2 and not doing TOO badly... but I did it on and off all day, interspersed with a few naps, housework, moving the laundry machines around( don't ask )and some time at the Bean. Which has definitely been sold, and has its power turned back on again - it wasn't on either of my days off earlier in the week, which was very, very annoying. Especially when there's not much else in the way of places to go here on top of Bear Mountain when it's raining down and you've got cabin fever.

March 13 -  NWN bliss!

I took a half-day at work today, mainly to get the payroll done( yay! Money! )and to catch up on a few things. I was home by early afternoon, still feeling tired. I puttered a bit online, playing BF:BC2 on the Xbox for a bit with Dave and Simon but my heart wasn't in it. After dinner though, was NWN quest time! I fell into a gaming heaven for nigh onto 5 hours, running through a DM-led quest that had us travel back in time and NOT DIE once though we fought several fierce battles. The major turning point though, took place when my Nich character talked an evil emperor out of killing us all... and did it so well that said evil Bad guy let us go with a pat on the head. It was lovely, the people I gamed with were fantastic, and I didn't want the night to end, as it must... times like that make me yearn for the days when I could game at that level several times a week, years ago. Now, sessions like those are rarer and commensurately more precious for their rarity - all good reasons to work hard at keeping the Primordia gaming group alive!

There you have it... a week I thought dragged at points, but ended on an incredible high note. Hard to believe, but then again the best things tend to surprise you!

Love, Loss and Lamentation

The word of the week is sorrowful. In spades - don't read the blog this week if you're sensitive to the loss of a pet...

Feb 28 – The Downhill Journey

For a few weeks now our amazing pet cat Tristan has been showing his age, not being able to jump up onto things as he used to. We thought it was that, anyway, until today when he stopped eating his food - totally, not a bite. He tried, but then pawed at his mouth like it pained him... totally unlike any behavior we've seen from him - he even refused bacon! We took him into a local vet's right away, who though they were remarkably nice were fairly unhelpful in a diagnosis apart from dismissing a bad tooth. We made an appointment with another vet for tomorrow afternoon and spent much of the evening trying to get Tristan to eat near-liquid food, with limited success - he was best able to clean up a dish of fresh tuna water, which seemed to give him more energy. He seems happy but quite tired and he is cooler to the touch than normal, a sure sign that his body is shutting down. We're all in shock at the sudden downturn he has taken; less than a week ago he was chasing little rubber balls around and jumping onto beds as usual. Frightening.

March 1 – Before Loss

Before I had to work today, we took Tristan into a much more helpful veterinarian, getting him a complete checkout and determining that he most likely had something wrong with his throat . Blood work showed him to be failing rapidly and suddenly, with all signs pointing to a cancer of some kind centered in his throat that was preventing him from swallowing. I left work early that evening to rush back to the vet's to pick up Tristan to bring him home again; we had decided against putting him down just as the vet's was closing for the day as he wasn't in any pain. He had little energy and was content to snooze quietly with one of us nearby at home; getting him to drink even a little fresh tuna water was a triumph at this point. As the day drew to a close, I decided to stay up for the entire night to ensure he was comfortable; he was generating so little body heat due to his lack of energy that we weren't sure he'd make it through the night unattended. Thankfully all he needed was a fleecy comforter and a loving presence to keep him with us; a couple of assisted trips for a few sips of tuna water and the litterbox were all he had the energy for. I lay awake watching TV and just spending the time with my friend until dawn.

March 2 – Tristan Passes

Once my parents were up, I gave over Tristan's care to them and caught several hour's grudging sleep, no more - today was Tristan's last day with us. We all three spent the time as close to him as we could, letting him enjoy our affection and seeing it returned in turn from him - he was truly a special animal, able to sense our distress and doing his best to try to keep us comforted with paws and purring. The sun came out quite a few times considering it was a rainy day, allowing Tristan to bask in its warmth easily. By late afternoon, it was time to leave for the vet's... the sun stayed with us for the whole trip, and there were several memorable moments in the car that will stay with my parents and I forever. Tragically, the trip had to end at the vet's and with Tristan's passing; I'll not go into detail save to say we all three were completely devastated for the rest of the evening and will remain so for long afterward. Of the 19 cats we've had over the years, Tristan was far and away the sweetest, most loving and most intelligent - I can truly say that he was one in a billion and we shall never, ever see his like again. A tragedy today,  his loss is... and I also feel sorry that so few people reading this will ever know the thousand ways that Tristan made our lives brighter and better.

Rest well, my little buddy.

March 3 – After Loss

The day after a devastating loss is always a grey blur for me; being short-staffed meant I had to work today, but while writing this blog I can't recall a single thing I said or did that day - it was all on automatic. I was much the same with the loss of another pet, Tetley, some six years past... his was also a unique personality, full of spunk and quite different from the quiet love that Tristan possessed. I have been lucky in many ways, I know, in that I haven't lost a close loved one or friend during my many years and that only two truly special pets have passed. All the things you associate with death do come into play: wishing for more time, to take back lost moments or unkind words or deeds... realizing that all you have after they are gone are the memories of the good times and the lessons they taught you while they were with you. Nothing lasts forever( sorry about that cliche )and sometimes you're just motoring along through life, not realizing you can slow down to enjoy the breeze and roll down the window a little more. Heck, stop and get out for a walk... or whatever tickles your fancy, especially if you're with someone you really care about. It sounds hokey, I know... but you may never get the chance again.

March 4 - Sorry we forgot to pay you for that...

I'm not sure what else to write in the blog this week that can really hold my interest... minor things all, they seem to me right now. Even the fact that my work managed to miss paying me for the 18 hours I spent covering Millstream last week seems rather dull and unimportant, as does the unfortunate firing of a co-worker... which I suspected was inevitable, sadly. My company pays lip service to 'developing the best people' but always seems ready to dismiss someone at the drop of a hat if they can find a good reason; it blows my mind sometimes. There's no sense of family, of loyalty or sometimes even common ethical decency - if you don't perform well enough, despite your other qualifications, you're gone. Makes the phrase 'job security' meaningless the way I see it; they're just waiting for an excuse to boot you for someone cheaper and less troublesome, for the most part. Kind of like contract workers at casinos.

March 5 - Take two tablets...

All right, I have to get a bit of technology into the blog this week... otherwise it's just a well-deserved lament for the loss we've experienced, and that's depressing me again. On to the Motorola Xoom: there's a solid in-depth no-holds-barred review by ArsTechnica.com, who go into a lot of the problems that another review, while also balanced, doesn't really touch on. For now, I'm really, really interested in the Xoom, but I hope that by the end of 2011 the $800 USD price tag drops quite a few notches. Interestingly, that's still LESS than I paid for my GatewayFX laptop two years ago... and I SOLD it this week for about half the cost of the Xoom - huzzah! An ex-Canadian in California bought it as-is, to try to repair if possible and use for parts otherwise; made me happy to both get some $$ for it and that it's going to somewhere other than a tech recycling bin. Which is where my iPhone replacement battery is going; I had to remove it today and replace IT with the OLD battery, as the 'new' battery was charging randomly and growing VERY hot... no thanks to eBay, I'm back to square one. At least the phone still works fine.

March 6 - Memories of Sundays Past

One of these years I'll be able to get every Sunday off, but for now the way staffing constraints are I'll be working most every Sunday albeit a shorter shift every other one. A few years ago that would have been very painful, as Sundays were the only day that ALL my friends were online on Xbox Live to game together; before that, it was Halo LAN-party day and before that D&D gaming day. Now, it's down to "Whoever's around on Sunday might get in a game or two on Xbox if we all feel like it" - which is fine, as I don't think my friends now want to spent ALL day on a Sunday gaming... weird how things change. Scarfing chips and beer while yelling insults at your buddies just isn't as fun online as it was all packed into one house together...

It's been devastating losing Tristan this week... he was a source of joy and love for 12 years, so to lose his familiar presence so suddenly really does leave a hole in our lives. But we have pictures and memories to fall back on, so the sense of loss will fade.... slowly and with pain, to be sure. He will be sorely missed all my days.

Signals, Senses and Serenity

The word of the week is ambivalent. Not that I really care, mind you...

Feb 21 - Summaries
 
Of late, I've been starting out the weekly blog's first entry with somewhat of a personal summary - my thoughts or observations of where I am and where I'm going, more than what I'm doing. I'm not sure if this is more for me than for other people, but it does provide some consistency, if I want to go back and look over my blog for the past 3 years or so. It's all there, getting briefer as time progresses, perhaps because I'm spending less time recording and more time doing - or so I like to think. One thing I've tried to do more of is to record my ideas / observations during the day, so that I have a selection of noted thoughts to fall back on and collate when I'm drumming up writing ideas. The blog doesn't really help with that... the ideas should be there when you have the time to turn them into something larger.
 
Feb 22 - Paper Computing
 
I try to keep my nose in the tech world's leading advances, as I love seeing how people can come up with new ways to make tech work for us. I was surprised therefore, that I had missed any mention of the  SixthSense  technology concept that was demoed in India over a year ago. Have a look at the presentation below and tell me you're not amazed at the possibilities that are discussed within:
 




Tech keeps advancing quickly, bringing costs down to levels that make your eyes pop when compared to previous years. Cell phones are an example; what an iPhone does down could not be duplicated ten years ago even given tech costing ten times as much, yet people take it all for granted today. I just purchased a replacement all-in-one full-colour scanner / copier / printer for my parents for $27.00 ... yes, that's right, less than THIRTY dollars got them something that ten years ago would easily have cost close to a thousand and probably not in colour printing. Unbelievable, the way tech just keeps advancing...
 
Feb 23 - Full Signal Joy
 
The benefits of being cheap AND a tech-head sometimes pans out. Take, for example, the problem of a poor cell signal in my bedroom – so poor I can't even get text msgs, let alone make a phone call. Enter the Cell Ranger, which for just $40.00 shipped on eBay promises to add 2 bars to your cell signal – and it works! It's NOT one of those 'Amazing' decal antennas, but rather a power-lighter plug-in powered antenna booster. Problem is, it's for a car... and I can't keep a car in my bedroom just for the cigarette-lighter power plug. Ebay to the rescue again; a $7.00 adaptor on  the cheap and I can now plug in the 'car-only' Cell Ranger at home, for perfect performance! The combo works like a charm, and my cell signal from the VERY close-by Telus tower is now 4-5 full bars – huzzah! Now all I have to do is find a few local friends to call me once in a while...
 
Feb 24 - Firefly
 
I may not be a Browncoat, but I do love the short-lived TV series Firefly... as well as cutaway posters. So when I saw that ThinkGeek had put up a set of posters that detailed the inner workings of the primary ship of the series, Serenity, I had to order it. On my shelf are various cutaway books from years past, including almost all of the Star Wars series - I'd always wondered just how BIG the Death Star was and how the internals were all laid out. And who hasn't wondered about what was where inside the Milennium Falcon, at some point? I'll admit that the idea of a 3D-flythrough has a lot of appeal, but until those arrive( if they ever do )then I'll be content to gaze at the cutaway posters on my wall, and dream the dreams of a younger boy who didn't yet know that nearby space wasn't filled with zooming spaceships...


Feb 25 - Funding Dreams
 
An example of money wasted, or a cool idea being made into reality? Funding has reached its goal already for a RoboCop statue in Detriot, but there's always the question of whether the $60K USD could be better spent on social programs for that city rather than idolizing a fictional robotic enforcer. Myself, I think it's very cool and another excellent example of social sites like Kickstarter.com catching people's imaginations to fund projects that otherwise may never see the light of day. Heck, if I had  to plan a trip out that way I'd be sure to include the statue on my itinerary - what g33k wouldn't, really? I just hope the final design is cooler than the image showing a cross-legged RoboCop - that's just plain silly. 

Feb 26 - Snow, winds and COLD !
 
We received more snow today, but people were well-prepared for it – all the main roads were clear, and the cold air was bracing instead of biting. I expected some problems coming home up the mountain, but the road was heavily-salted and perfectly clear – something the person driving in front of me couldn't grasp, as they did 30K the entire 4.5K drive up... in an SUV. Obviously they had little winter-driving experience; I can thank my years in ON for being able to judge a winter road as to being icy, salted, clear or slippery... as well as the various levels of snow-covered. Nothing wrong with being cautious however, especially on roads where the only crash barriers are the trees that slope away into the dark down the hillside... anyway. I was out for a while after work( which was insanely busy so I finished 2hrs late )and just crashed for the evening, sleeping, watching parts of TV shows and ending up in a lovely hours-long chat with Mike up until the witching hour, which tried the patience of Skype( it crashed and complained )and my bluetooth headset.
 
Feb 27 - Catching up on daytime sleep
 
Finally: my first full day off in 12 days in a row of working, and MAN I was tired; I woke to breakfast at 9am and then fell back asleep until noon, something totally uncharacteristic for me – I had NO energy and I think the heavy rain outside just sapped any attempts to leave the warm bed. I'm glad to see the rain though, as it's quickly reducing the piles of snow outside to puddles at a rate that makes my heart glad. I went out to the Bean after lunch, perhaps for the last time, as the staff there said they will receive news about the sale tomorrow - I'm hoping hard that it will be business as usual under the new owners. I dozed on and off fitfully for the rest of the afternoon, as I was still exhausted. After dinner I participated in a great NWN, session which saw two of my longtime friends appear( Gwen & Nab )though one just stayed on to shop... but otherwise much fun was had by all. I barely paid any attention to the Oscars, apart from Sandra Bullock's presentation, and just finished the day with some low-energy blog puttering.

Looks like the winter weather here is abating - it rained buckets today, alternating with slushy snowfall, so the piles of the white stuff were greatly reduced. Given the coming week's forecast, I'd be surprised to see anything resembling snow left on the ground by the weekend - another win for BC winters!

Hearts, Hope and Half-Days Off

The word of the week is quixotic. Because we all need to hope.

Feb 14 - Love and Mondays

T'was another Hallmark Holiday today, when people are reminded that they should love one another... sad that we have to commercialize the one day a year that should be about emotion, not graphic expenditures of cash to 'prove' one's devotion / love / affection to another. While I don't have( nor have had )a significant other right now, I do give thanks that I have such a loving, easy-to-get-along-with family that is supportive of me and has never felt the need to pressure me into doing what they want... it's been all me. Which, given where I am today, is somewhat troubling to think on levels other than personal ones... but then I don't let the silly stuff bother me for too long. Yeah, thanks St. Valentine; I hope you never learned what 'your' holiday has become.

Feb 15 - Tick Tok

Is Time really Perception? I've been having that odd thought all week, as I contemplate where I've been and where I'm going on a scale of an average lifetime. Putting the ramifications of 'success' aside for the moment, I can say that I'm not on any particular track, nor aimless: I've had to make some choices years ago and those are finally coming to a close. Now, I have to look at where I want to be in another five to ten years – personally, professionally and financially. I'll likely still be in BC, but I'm not sure if I want to go the home ownership route towards traditional wealth-asset earnings... or if I want to create a comfy little pad to live in / rent whilst I sock away savings towards some as-yet indefinable focus. I like the fact that I'm closing in on this freedom of choice, as much as it means I'll probably be at a new job by year's end, if not sooner – stress reduction is right on top of my priorities now.

Feb 16 -It's Google... Art?

While I don't pretend to be an art snob, I do appreciate talented work, and history is full of masterworks by such artists. Most of which I won't see anytime soon, as they're locked away in museums a world away. Google has done something to free those works of art for everyone to see: The Google Art Project. It aims to allow anyone to scrutinize thousands of works of art, from anywhere in the world, at incredible detail levels – more than you'd get even if you were standing right in front of said artworks. Galleries from across the globe have opened their doors to Google's Art Project, letting their collections be viewed by potential millions who otherwise can't make the journey through their distant doors. Bravo, Google... you may be evil, but it's in a guise of creative generosity sometimes too.

Feb 17 - Old Gets New

Today I finally put my iPhone back together, after replacing its 4-year-old battery with a new one from an eBay seller. Total cost? Ten bucks Canadian... vs. God knows what that Apple would have charged. The phone DID lay open for 3 days while I searched for a Phillips-head screwdriver small / precise enough to get four stubborn ThreadLocked screws out. Thanks to Wal-Mart Optical, for being such sports – I don't think they get many half-open cell phones walk in the door for service. The new battery looks to give me a full day from one charge, which is all one can really ask these days... my old Sanyo phone used to go two weeks between charges, but then it had a monochrome screen and was no smarter than your average politician. I'm pleased that I was able to do the change myself, and it looks like the phone is working just fine despite its intermittent reception issues at home; I checked the antenna when it was open and everything was in order. Ah well – technology... at least there are more than a few online iPhone repair guides I was able to use.

Feb 18 - Moodz

This week a very good old friend cared enough to let me know that the moods and situations I've been in the last long while are very similar to what they went through some time ago... and needed someone to tell them so. While I've striven NOT to be a Nasty, Moody Guy because Life Has Sucked( somewhat )recently, it's obviously still bothering me though I try to deal with it as best I can – talking with my family helps, but by and large the only person who can deal with it is me. Expecting someone else to fix your own problems is stupid, and I've never thought that way – appealing as it is, it's an empty road. I've dealt with all the problems that have come my way so far, for the most part successfully and without losing my sanity. My family's now stable financially and I can look to my own self again for the first time in over a decade... so I'll probably take a nap for 6 months and then a good stretch to begin.

Feb 19 - Not a Day Off

So much for sleeping in... well, I wasn't sleeping, but I received a call in the early morning that nobody had shown up to open the store. The life of a manager; I threw on some professional clothes and headed out to the branch while dialing the CSR who was supposed to open, without any answer, which was worrying. Thankfully they answered as I pulled into the branch lot: they had slept in. As I was opening the store I received another call from my other CSR; the sleepy one had crashed their car on the way into work! Thankfully they said it was only a minor accident, but it meant that they were likely going to be off work for a few days. My other CSR came in early and I managed( argh... )to leave by noon to enjoy my day off. Over to the Bean, of course, then I passed out for some few hours in the lovely sunshine coming in through my room's windows. The evening managed to disappear with various projects( none of them writing )as I culled more Stuff for eBay sale, fiddled with the PC and generally tried to de-stress... for the most part successfully.

Feb 20 -See Above, With Ice

Sunday I expected to have to open the branch, but my other CSR graciously offered to open the store if I would come in to close it – thanks! Good crew I have. The sun was shining, so I spent a few blissful hours at the Bean writing up this very blog, sitting in my usual window seat facing the clock tower with Mt. Finlayson looming green to the right. I'm pleased to say that it looks like the Bean has been bought, so my fears of the place closing due to money woes have receeded somewhat. I can't tell you how great it is to have a place like the Bean literally outside my front door, where I can go to relax. I hope that the new owners are able to get things going again, so that the place will be open longer and I'll be able to go more than once every few weeks due to their shorter hours. Getting a spot by the fireplace would be nice too. After a half-shift I headed home, to dinner and NWN( icy adventure! )then blog and bed. Zzz.

This little afterword is something I save for bits that don’t really warrant a full blog entry. Kind of like this pair of sentences, wouldn’t you say?

Creativity, Comics and Computerz

The word of the week is apocryphal. Uh-huh!

Feb 7 – Silicon Comics

Back when I used to get a daily paper delivered, before the internet came along, it was the best medium for getting news and new information. As time passed and information exploded into the information age, papers for me became quaint tools, useful for really only one thing: the comics section. For all it’s vast uses, I’d been disappointed with how difficult it’s been to get all my favourite daily comics in one place. Up until recently, that is – it seems that technology has finally conquered the daily comic, as you can now see almost all your fave strips in one place at most major papers. I now surf over to TheStar.com a few times a week to catch up – Hagar The Horrible is timeless!

Feb 8 – Kindle, not kindling

Despite its lack of signal in my room, I’ve been really enjoying certain aspects of my iPhone, not the least of which is the Kindle eBook reader app - for PC too. The books on Kindle are VERY inexpensive, usually less than $5.00 each, which easily approaches used-book store prices and take up no physical room at all. I’ve downloaded about a dozen titles so far, including both of the newest Robert Jordan novels as well as some story collections. Quite a few titles are about Zombies and apocalyptic books, I’ve noticed... seems to be my taste of late. Mmmm.... braiiins. Good reads all, though.

Feb 9 - Prelude to Eden

I wonder sometimes what path I would have taken had my talents evolved along the more visual arts, rather than the written word. I tried my hand at drawing and didn’t like the results... so much so that I veered away from the visual and gave free reign to my mental imagery instead. There are quite a number of visual artists whose work I am thunderstruck by, one of whom was introduced to me( not personally )by my good friend Mike H. That is, of course, the renowned Michel Gagne, whose work is mind-bogglingly creative. Have a gander and then find some more of his work to blow your mind again:



Feb 10 – Happy B-day Sis!

Today was my sister’s birthday, which has in the past sometimes been a hit-and-miss thing. Usually hit, with the occasional miss. I like to think I’ve made up for a few low points before with the recent gifting of said laptop to said sister, which I’ve come to understand has been a BIG life-changer for her. Having a laptop, for me, means I can write / surf / game wherever I want to, within reason – usually it means a coffee shop or local Wifi point, as I’m too cheap to spring for a mobile ‘net-stick. Back to my sister though: it’s difficult to be close to your siblings yet not BE close to them, so for all of you out there with a bro or sis far away, remember to think of them more often than not, and call / Skype them more often than that. Keep those family ties strong.

Feb 11 – It’s a UPS, via UPS!

You’d think this was a g33k / tech blog from all the technology I mention here, but hey: it’s what I like. F’rinstance, UPS arrived at my door today, with a UPS that I’d got on super –sale not a few days back. The thing weighed 11kg yet the shipping was $4.99 – bargain! This was to replace the old UPS that failed earlier this week during a brief power outage; I’ve had that one since the mid-90’s and despite a battery change a few years ago, it’s just not doing its job any more, a decade in. Good that it’s lasted this long though – the replacement is another Cyberpower, though this one has a ton of features the other lacked and is more powerful to boot. So my new PC will be much safer, even unattended. I originally bought a UPS from when I lived in Fonthill, where the power would fail once a week during the summer given the nasty thunderstorms that lash ON every year. No such storms here, but the winds that kick up do tend to knock down a LOT of trees onto power lines, so the same result happens, just less often. Hence the UPS and my peace of mind.

Feb 12 – Me vs. Seagate

So far, the Seagate Debacle seems to be working out. I’ve been using the laptop drive as my main drive for 2 weeks now in my server tower, and it seems quite happy – cool too, for that matter. I’m going to see if I can’t tweak it some to dual-boot Vista and maybe even Ubuntu Linux; there’s lots of room on it as I’ve got plans to put most of my data on other drives for safe-keeping. It’s an interesting and challenging hobby some days; as long as you’re careful about what you do it can have good results. What irks me about operating systems and the like is that it takes SO long to install things; when something goes wrong it can be days or a week before things are back as they were. I’ll be taking things slow for a bit as I work out what I want to do, but so far I’m really pleased with my computer setup that will only get better, despite the almost total loss of my rather expensive laptop. Which I will likely end up selling on eBay soon to try and recoup some of my costs.... darn it.

Feb 13 – No Spring In My Step

It’s been a quiet week; I’ve worked right through until today, with tomorrow off – finally. I’ve been tired but thankfully flu-free, despite a lot of it going around as usual this time of year. Now that the days are getting longer again, I think I’ll have more energy, especially if I get up the gumption to get out and trundle around a bit doing some exercise. Been woefully short on that, of late, which has likely contributed greatly to my lack of excess energy – no real surprise there. I think that given the incredible stress I’ve been under up until the end of 2010, I’ve had somewhat of a snap-back, where the sudden lack of stress in a few areas has left me mentally reeling a bit – in a good way, though. As I’ve said before, I’m going into 2011 trying to be positive and to set up some goals for things I’ve put off due to necessity for some time now. Healthy head and healthy body make for improvement in All Things Me, so I’ll be planning things as I always do and trying my best not to overstep myself. I need sleep - I was too tired to even continue a NWN adventure for more than an hour after work tonight, so there you are.

Not a lot going on this week; it’s February and taxes are starting up at work, so that’s a pain. At least it looks like I’ll be getting a return this year, which is always good. Plan for it early and it might work out!