Deathlands, Digression and District 9

The word of the week is ignominious.

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

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

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

May 11 - Quiz me, Monkey!

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

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

May 12 - Lazers on eBay

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

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

May 13 - Day Off Digression

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

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

May 14 - Iron Man, Tin Authors

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

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

May 15 – Martin Visits!

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

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

May 16 - A Paper Concorde?

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

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

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

Apple, Avatar and Aircraft

The word of the week is ... specular.

May 3 – The Seattle Apple?

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

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

May 4 – Zombie Emails

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

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

May 5 - Avatar

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

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

May 6 – Relaxed at last!

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

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

May 7 – Fryday

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

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

May 8 – Starcraft Saturday

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

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

May 9 – Sam who?

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

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

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

Bass, Bacteria and Booty

The word of the week is ...  squee?

April 26 – Fungal Souls

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

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

April 27 – Want a RIM job?

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

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

April 28 – Surviving Iron Man

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

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

April 29 – Playing Hard with Bugs

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

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

April 30 – Stupid Bass Mentals

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

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

May 1 – Putting a Foot Down Badly

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

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

May 2 – Is Hoguetastic Better than Slave Leias?

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

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

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

Lego, Long Days and Lassitude

The word of the week is ... fulcrum.

April 19 – Deer Me

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

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

April 20 – Mobster Books

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

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

April 21 – Sith Stories

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

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

April 22 - Seeing The Fake City

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

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

April 23 – More Work, More Play

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

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

April 24 – Doomsday USB

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

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

April 25 – Facial Hair

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

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

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

Moved, Microsoft and Marathons

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

April 12 – Running for the Force

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

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

April 13 – Forever Clocks

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

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

April 14 – Moving Minus One

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

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

April 15 – Moving Day

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

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

April 16 - Recovery

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

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

April 17 – Paint It Red

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

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

April 18 – No Day Off

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

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

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

Shuttling, Starships and Sean Connery

The word of the week is futz – I’ll get around to a better one next week.

April 5 – Starship Hugo

Great news! StarshipSofa was nominated for a Hugo Award today! Congrats to Tony C. Smith, and kudos to Brian for his amazing cover art for S3 a little while ago... good news all around.

If I still played any pen-and-paper( “PnP” )games, I’d make sure to find a place to put this in the new condo
– it’s one of quite a few old-school PnP gaming products offered by GeekChic.com. When I was still playing about 5 years ago, I came up with the idea of putting a grid inside a clear plastic sheet to allow for creation of maps using dry-erase markers; too bad I didn’t think of it twenty years ago, I could have made a mint in sales and beat GeekChic to the punch! *sigh*

April 6 – Transformers iPad?

All right: the iPad over-hype has got me on edge – it’s all that the tech world has talked about for the last month and even I’m getting sick of it. Gizmodo.com looks like one giant Apple ad for the iPad, but occasionally you see something cool pop to the front , like this. Or even more strangely – this! Bacon!

The upcoming MMO Transformers: War for Cybertron looks to be a visual treat as well as a fast-paced blastfest. I’m not a fan of hyper-paced shooters, as I prefer RPG’s to twitch-based games, but I do love the idea of gaming in the Transfomers universe while on Planet Cybertron. It was one of the few things in the old 1980’s cartoon that I couldn’t get enough of: an entire planet of cybernetic coolness? Sweet.

April 7 – Goin’ 8-bit

Pixels is a fantastic CGI-enhanced video that looks at the invasion of New York( and the world )by 8-bit creatures from 1980’s video games – check it out:

Today was a 13 hour day: I opened the downtown store and then closed the Millstream branch. The downtown was a total zoo, with GST cheques and just crowds of people packing in the door for the entire 8 hours I was there, half of it on my own. I managed to hand things over to my relief at 4pm and scram – I didn’t take the bus. Millstream was a stark relief by comparison, where all I had to worry about was catching up on paperwork and training. It was actually nice to sit down for part of the evening!

April 8 – I can see!

Finally, my new glasses arrived today – I picked them up after work. I held my breath as I tried them on, as the last time I did so the right lens was a total blur. This time: perfection! The prescription is close to my old glasses, but set in a solid, stylish new pair of frames... I couldn’t be happier. I’m also pleased that the new frames are as solid as tank armour, which fits ‘em right in with my old sunglasses frames I wear today I purchased in FL ten years ago. They’re still the best frames I’ve ever owned: solid as a rock after all this time.

The old 80’s sci-fi film Outland was on television tonight, and I enjoyed it in between bouts of doing more work-related things on my one evening free before the move next week. The film stars Sean Connery in his first major role since he left the James Bond films, and put him back on a rising career path culminating in his Oscar win for The Untouchables six years later in 1987. Again, I haven’t been out for a movie in ages( not since last year’s Star Trek, come to think of it )so movies like How To Train Your Dragon as well as upcoming titles like The Last Airbender and Tron Legacy are more likely to end up on my DVD shelf than have me see them in the cinema.

April 9 – New and Old

We did the walkthrough inspection of the new condo this morning, making a checklist of all the things that were damaged by the previous occupants. The place was in basically good shape, though it looks like the last folks loved putting up as many shelves and pictures as they could find wall space for – lots of PolyFilla work to do. The place was warm and sunny even without the heat on, which bodes wells for our Hydro bills next winter. We measured seven ways to Sunday too, using the numbers to later create a floor map that let us see if everything would fit the way we thought it would: good news, it all does! Not a lot of in-condo storage( hardly any! )though, so there will be some organizing trips to the storage locker at the far end of the parking garage to get things settled once we’re moved. And the view is both tranquil and reminiscent of a resort, as it overlooks part of the golf course:

On occasion I pop over to TodayInHistory.com to see what notable things took place in the past on this date. However, today was an easy one: on April 9^th 1917, Canadian troops began their assault on Vimy Ridge and so began the formation of Canada as a country. As we lost our last living Canadian WWI veteran John Babcock  only a few months ago, this year’s ceremonies are especially poignant to ensure future generations remember the gallant sacrifices that we made by Canadians who came before.

April 10 – Dang Busy!

While I’ve been packing( and tossing )things for the, I’ve been keeping some advice from a recent study in mind: the less time spent handling items, the more objective you can be about deciding if you’re going to keep them or not. According to the study, people tend to get irrationally attached to objects the more they handle them, so the best way to make a toss / keep decision is to look at something briefly enough to decide if it’s actually worth hanging onto because you’re going to use it again in the neat future – not in ten years time and especially not if it can be replaced fairly easily and / or cheaply. Another great site for this sort of advice is TheUnclutterer.com – check it out, some good tips there too.

Work today was all right, even though I was downtown and that increased the usual percentage of idiots. A memorable one was the big guy who wanted to make a complaint to the manager about how he didn’t like how our reloadable card was set up( yet had not bothered to read the Terms of Use to educate himself on said details ). When I stated that I WAS a manager, he stuttered and said “No, I want to talk to the manager here.” I replied that she was on vacation, and that I’d be happy to explain things... but he snarled and left, obviously irked that his “Go over the counter drone’s head” tactic had backfired. The next guy in line watched him leave, then turned to me with a grin and said “What an a-hole!” to which I merely smiled as a reply and happily served the rest of the patiently waiting people.

April 11 – NOT a day of rest and GOOD news!

Some great news before noon this morning: my very good friend Rene announced he is engaged! I’m terrifically happy for him and his new beau Tonia, and I’ll do everything I can to be able to make it back to Niagara for their wedding next year. Right now I’ve no plans to visit in 2010, but who knows? A lottery win can change a lot of things... maybe I would get myself one of these to travel the world in.

Not much to say about what I did today save this: I packed boxes and put them in the car, then drove them to their destinations  a dozen times over the course of ten hours or so. Most of them are going into a storage unit nearby that we’re renting until we figure out exactly what will fit once we have all the furniture and bookshelves in place there. A fair bit of the rest will be put down in our storage locker, to be whittled down as time permits – thank goodness we’re not an outdoorsy family, as I can’t imagine how we’d store that kind of gear. By day’s end I was beat, no surprise there – my parents also prepped the place for painting tomorrow, as the previous tenants left a LOT of marks and plugs in the wall, on top of being rather grubby-handed.

I’m still rather annoyed about being pic- pocketed on the bus home last week, but there’s little I can do about it save wish that the next person the thief decides to target turns out to be a judo expert who’s having a bad day AND whose wife just left him. Can you say “Wow, he left the bus flying!” ... which would be nice. I’m glad I’m moving in 5 days, as I still have a slight worry that the thief knows where I live.

Retinas, Retro and Robbery

The word of the week is from BC:  Skookum ... that’s good!

March 29 – Shiny ‘Verse news

It’s been years since I last let anything from McDonald’s into my system, and this photo shows you just how biodegradable food from the Golden Arches is. Makes me regret my time spent lunching on the cheap there in university at times; quarter-pounder meals were well within my student budget then.

Some good Firefly news: more stories are on the way! I picked up a few canon comics last year, but this is great for those fans who want to hear more about the ‘Verse. There was news a while ago about a comic being released this November by Joss Whedon’s brother about the mysterious Shepherd’s Book. I’m hoping the same may happen with the FarScape series, which also had a fair number of comics released to continue the tales from that universe.

March 30 – Eye See

Today I heard on the local news channel that one of the worst places to live in Canada for debt was... the Niagara Region - what??? Data from a recent study found that 74.6% of homeowners in the area are paying between 50-60% of their incomes towards the cost of their homes. The maximum should be around 33-36% total. Yowch! Statistics like that scare me, as I’ve been considering a home( albeit not an extravagant one by any means )given that mortgage prices are set to rise in a few months time.

Here’s some hope for those who are without sight: the bionic eye has made major strides towards becoming a viable option for those who have lost their sight. Makes you wonder what the near future may hold – shades of FASA’s Shadowrun cybernetics, anyone?

March 31 – Spring has arrived

March was a long month; lots of hours put in at work and hours put in at home working on packing. It was good to see the sun shine more often and the flowers arrive; I’ll have to make a trip to Butchart Gardens soon to see it in the springtime. I’m glad that I’m not allergic to anything spring-related!

I’ll be replacing my parent’s laptop in the new year, I think – it’s running slow even for their needs, with Vista home on it. Upgrading it would cost almost as much as a new one anyway, even without a new CPU, so what’s the point? I’ll be sure to pop on a fair number of the excellent programs from C|Net’s Windows Starter Kit on the new one when it arrives, then I’ll figure out what to do with the old one. Maybe I’ll make it into a portable word processor and set up access to my home network remotely, so I can take it around and work on my writing while still having easy access to all of my work... hmmm.

April 1 – Eye Fool You

No jokes today; I’m too busy to think of one, but I’m sure that didn’t stop other people from taking the time to do so. Here’s a list of harmless April Fool’s Jokes you can check out for next year. But of course you’ve already checked out the April Fool’s Edition of Newt And John, right? Do it now if you haven’t!

My final eye appointment was in the morning today, and it was a solid one: the doctor said she’d rarely had such a solid set of test results in her 15 years of practice. Which meant she was able to finalize my prescription which I immediately took over to WalMart to get my new glasses order finished – should be a few weeks and then I won’t have to worry any more about my current shakily-repaired glasses failing on me. Makes me wonder about the bionic eye article in terms of replacements...?  Sounds pricey.

April 2 – Robbed on the Bus Home

Well, there’s truth in the words “No good deed goes unpunished.” I received a call at 8am from my DM asking if I could work today downtown, as the only girl left there called in almost-dead ie. sick as sick can be. I agreed, and spent the day run off my feet due to the holiday – everyone who couldn’t make it to a bank today came in to see us instead. I was very tired by late in the day as I took the bus home... which is why I didn’t notice at first that my backpack had moved from its place on the floor. I quickly spotted it tucked away under a couple of seats and dragged it out again – a quick visual revealed the top unzipped and my PDA missing. I politely questioned the guy and girl sitting in those seats, as well as managing to convince the guy to open up his bag... nothing. They left the bus at the next stop, and from all the indicators were the ones who took my PDA – but I didn’t see either of them do it, so could have done little save follow them off, which would have been foolish. I also didn’t want to make a scene that could very  possibly end in violence; he was fairly rough-looking and had another friend joining him at the bus stop. My fault for being tired and taking my eyes off my bag for a minute... but they’ll get little use out of the PDA as it was PIN-locked and had no crucial data on it apart from old documents. Perhaps they’ll call me in a few days for the reward noted on the cover of the PDA – that’s why I put it on there, but I never thought I would be putting it there for a thief to collect from me! And it could have been worse; they could have gotten away with my entire backpack...

Topping that, we had a major windstorm here all day today – it began early last night and blew through until the afternoon. The roads were littered with debris, but thankfully there were no injuries – except some bruised lawn gnomes I saw under piles of branches.

April 3 – Xbox vs. iPad

Are you as sick of reading about today’s release of the Apple iPad as I am? I don’t see the tablet as anything I would need, save as a colour book or comic reader. It is missing quite a few features that I consider ‘standard’ with modern computer technology, like being able to plug in USB devices without an adaptor  – it’s a cheesy grab for cash by Apple. While some reviews of the iPad rave about it, others are not so kind – it looks like about a fifty-fifty split right now. As for me: I’m abstaining.

My own tech arrived a few days ago: Xbox was delivered on April 1^st, and the joke is that I couldn’t play it until late tonight due to working so much – I had planned on doing it yesterday, but that didn’t work out so well as you saw above. Since Microsoft sent me a refurbished unit( and not my old one )that meant I had to re-download and re-install all of the games and files again to ‘link’ them to the new hardware; there went my evening. Everything seems to be working on the new unit though – nice! Makes you wonder what happens when one of Microsoft’s secret data centers has a glitch happen...

April 4 - Thundercats

Not much to say about today; it’s my only day off before we start moving things to the new condo on the
10^th, so I’m busy packing all day today. I did take a short break in the morning to briefly play COD4 with Lucas and Dave, but that didn’t last long at all. All too soon it was time to return to sorting through things to either pack or discard... again. This is the third time I’ve done this since moving to BC in the first place, when I had a massive yard sale to begin with to reduce things... but I can only go so far before it gets down to my books, my collectables or other things that are dear to me and nigh-impossible to replace. My thought has always been to hang onto that which I cannot replace, for when I have a place of my own with a place for everything – which may never happen, I realize. But, I can dream of such.

At 3pm today the Thundercats 24-hour marathon began on TeleToon Retro. I’m too busy packing to do more than have it playing in the background, but I am recording the whole thing on DVD for later. From what I have seen tonight, there was a fairly decent backstory that was little-used in the series concerning the history of Third Earth and the ‘Cats. To end on a Thundercat note, here’s an amusing tie-in to that with Barack Obama as well – whoda thunk?

Another week, another mighty blog hand-crafted and delivered to the waiting world full of... er, words.

Force Fields, Fakes and Fringe

The word of the week is reticulated ...

March 22 - TeeVee

I’ve really been enjoying Castle lately: the levels of humour laced throughout the show take the edge off the fact that each show revolves around a murder, really. It’s also quite cool that a writer is the central character( and the titular name of the show! )that Nathan Fillion obviously has a lot of fun with. I’m no fan of cop dramas or shows like CSI, which despite the fact that they cater to a more thinking audience I just can’t bring myself to get into. I like to be entertained as much as anyone else, but I don’t go for deep drama along the lines of connect-the-dots. Humour me on this.

Another show I haven’t had much time to look at is Fringe, which recently posted a ‘Catch up with Fringe Guide’ on the Fox website. It looks to have a deep storyline, but I may just end up having to get it on DVD. Or blu-ray, by the time I end up getting around to it.

March 23 - Toy Memories

Packing up all my things, I’m still amazed that I’ve held onto so many things over the years – understandably a lot of those are books, but things like board games( Axis and Allies, anyone? )as well as my Lego and Star Wars collection... I’m loathe to part with them. I’m not sure if it’s because I keep hoping they’ll somehow rise astronomically in value so I can make a killing on eBay and retire at age 50, or something similar. Maybe it’s just a nostalgia thing, in which case it’s good I didn’t really have too many memories of my wading pool as a child...

Here’s another little bit of my childhood gone: there’s been a warning issued for all older Fisher-Price ‘Little People’ toys as a choking hazard. I remember playing with the Fisher Price castle a lot as a kid, but I never had the urge to chew on the toy and so endanger my life. Nice to know I was in danger back then and didn’t know it...

March 24 - Distance

Today I was thinking about friends and distance, of how one’s social circles can be circumscribed by proximity or by choice. In my case, my choice led to a lack of proximity to my friends, almost all of which are thousands of miles away, or in some cases merely avatars I interact with via the internet.

All right... I missed putting bacon in last week’s blog, but it seems nobody noticed. So this week, I bring you a liquid apology: Bacon Beer! And no, it’s not a smoked porter... I have no idea what that is.

March 25 - Pi Fields

One step closer from fiction to reality: word today that the British Army is experimenting successfully with creating force fields for use in tanks. How cool is that? In the same article they also state that armour covered in holes is more effective than regular armour... that doesn’t make me more confident.

On the topic of fakes: sometimes you wonder about videos on YouTube... are they faked sometimes? Have a look at this one, and you be the judge... myself, I’m pretty impressed! Quite cool that you can make a video of yourself, release it to the world and see what may result... which is usually nothing, as there are so MANY videos out there that the chances of getting noticed in the sea of silicon is almost zilch. Unless you’re the Star Wars Kid.

March 26 - Moving News

We signed the new lease agreement today for the Bear Mountain condo, for a 2-year lease – I made sure I checked things out with the help of this Lease Question List. We’re excited by the move, as it’s to a place that resembles a nice ski resort... without the snow or college-age crowds. There’s only one road in though, so I’m not so happy about that or the fact that it’s much further from work. Still, it’s better than the place we’re in now in many ways, so we’re packing up.

Today I received an email notice that my Xbox has been repaired and is being sent back to me... via the slow boat using Purolator. Still, it was nice that there was( and still is! )a three-year warranty on the thing – rest assured I will be testing it as soon as it arrives, hopefully this week.

March 27 - Movie and Work

Today before work, I managed to find some time to watch Inglorious Basterds which was surprisingly enjoyable. Knowing it was a Tarantino film going in, the violence was no surprise and didn’t detract too much from the film experience – I found it less over the top than I had expected. Any film where Hitler gets riddled with bullets is worth watching, as they are few and far between. I was disappointed in that there was less of a ‘Dirty Dozen’ feeling to the Basterds, who all get little individual screen time overall.

My sixth day of work today was only a half-shift at the MMart in Colwood, helping out so that the staffer there didn’t have to pull a 10-hour day... plus it was O/T, bonus. It was a nice shift, nothing crazy save the same silly woman who always comes in when I am there and for some reason takes every word I say as a personal insult – I’ve no idea why. I suppose I’ll have to work on my facial mobility skills, as she’s not easily picking up on my smile cues or friendly body language. Either that or: she’s an alien...? Maybe!

March 28 - Making Boxes

Spent today packing, packing and more packing. I’ve put away a lot of my books as well as my DVD’s; they’ll be put away until I figure out my available space at the new place which is short a den for my use. I’m hoping to compensate for that with a quieter location, a balcony with a view sans public park next door, as well as having accessible storage in the basement area.

By day’s end I was rather knackered, so I knocked back after dinner( perogies! )to watch a bit of television... and as usual there was little on. So I popped in the Crusade DVD and found solace in the excellent writing of JMS and the tremendous cast he assembled for the show. A bit of time to make up the blog and I was ready to hit the hay for another 6-day week. Huzzah.

Endnotes will reappear next week. Kawmint...?

Moving, Microsoft and Medicine

The word of the week is dishevelled ...

March 15th - Parting Ways Perhaps?

I shipped off my dead Xbox360 at UPS today, and hope to have it back from MicroSoft fully repaired under warranty by next week – if it wasn’t under warranty, I’d take a look here for various fix suggestions for the Red Ring Of Death. I’m less upset than I thought I would be, as I’m far too busy these last few weeks to really put much time into some serious relaxing online or off with the Xbox. I’ve still got to make some serious headway in games such as Borderlands or Batman: Arkham Asylum before I can even consider newer content like Toy Soldiers... I always feel like I am falling behind in my game time.

I was also shocked, along with the rest of the world to learn about Jesse James and Sandra Bullock this week, especially so hard on the heels of her Oscar win. I’ve always had a soft spot for Sandra, as I find her a rather refreshingly honest AND likable personality among Hollywood’s many false-faced players. Being not as naive as you would think, I do realize this could just be stellar PR on her part, but overall I’ve followed her career with some interest and found her to be a most lovely a person on and off the screen.

March 16 - Movie Parody Swiftly

One of my favourite SF series to read when I was young was Tom Swift, whose books captured a sense of adventure without imminent danger of horrible death – bad for young readers, I suppose. I recently found out that Tom Swift falls into the genre category of a ‘Youth Dystopia’ which surprised me, given the upbeat nature of the books. What I find even more interesting is that I clearly recall an updated series of Tom Swift books from the early 80’s with slick black covers and updated artwork, but I’ve not been able to track down their origin or publisher. One more thing to add to my ‘Find it!’ list.

One always has to keep atop of trends, as well as analyzing how things work. Below is a very clever parody of Hollywood movie trailers, which looks at how movies tug at our emotions and push our buttons.  Listen closely to the dialogue; great work!

March 17 - Luck of the Irish

Yes, it’s St Patrick’s Day, where everyone is Irish for the day. I confess that I like the day the most for the colour: green! It’s my favourite colour, and another reason why I love BC: it’s green for most every day of the year here, in some part or another. As for St. Patty’s Day, I limited myself to googling Irish blessings and planning perhaps to visit Niagara next year about this time, to see how things are at the Kilt when this Day of Days arrives again. We’ll see if those plans actually happen, won’t we?

After work today I went up to Bear Mountain to have a look at the condo we’re looking at renting ASAP, as it’s been immensely difficult to find a place near where I work that not only has room for three people but will ALSO allow a pet. Fortunately, this place fits the bill and the budget, as well as being in a stupendously lovely setting and is situated next to a world-class golf course. Which I don’t play; there’s irony for you. A downside to the location is its isolation: there’s only one road in from Millstream that winds almost 4km up the mountain, a route that means I’ll not be able to walk to work any more, or if I ride my bike it will be a one-way fast trip down and a long hike back up of more than an hour.

March 18 - Good Medical News for Moi

A busy morning: off to the doctor’s for an early appointment, when I was told that I do NOT have pre-diabetes, according to my blood test... I just had slightly elevated blood sugar levels, but all other indicators were normal. Also, I found out that diabetes would affect BOTH eyes, not just my right one, so that’s good news indeed! Now I have to really watch my diet for the next three weeks, so I can ensure that my sugar levels remain fairly constant and so make my next eye exam a solid baseline one. Then I can get my new glasses completed and not have to worry that the damaged ones will fall apart again at any moment.

Ah, good ol’ io9.com – I love to check the site every few days, as there’s always something cool or new posted. One such that was up today was this incredible Transformers art – as the article said, Michael Bay should have got the artist on board for his films and not just depended on the CGI department.

March 19 - Good News for Moving To The Mountain

During my morning shift today, I received word that the Bear Mountain condo is ours if we want it( we do )and that the papers will be signed on Monday for the rental lease. Which means that we’re going to be moving in mid-April, and packing up / selling things for the next month until then. Busy, busy, busy. On top of that, I’ve had someone from Head Office visiting this week, an opportunity I’ve made use of as he’s very interested in finding out what’s working and what’s not at the retail level... I’d estimate I’ve given him about 50 pages of notes to bring back and ponder, most of which are positive criticism about how to make things better for both the customer and the employees at the front end. Plus in all this I’ve been training someone new... so it’s been rather exhausting, and a good thing that my Xbox chose this week to go on the fritz – I’ve had NO time to do more than relax a tad before sleep every night.

In terms of archiving, my Toshiba DVD recorder’s been getting a workout of late as I transfer various programs from the DVR in the other room onto DVD( obviously )as it won’t be as easy in the new condo due to the increased distance between my electronics stack and the DVR in the main room. Phew... say THAT last sentence five times fast and see how much of it makes it past your lips. I’ve managed to save quite a few episodes of Pinky And The Brain for later viewing – my eventual hope is to have a massive media server setup with my old PC, where I can call up any show I wish and watch it on the big screen, without having to resort to swapping DVD’s; instant on-demand TV without the limitations of a retail DVR. I can dream...

March 20 - Spring Arrives!

Today is the first day of Spring for 2010, and it’s a gorgeous one here in Victoria – people are wandering around outside in t-shirts and tank-tops, albeit with jackets still over their arms. Flowers are blooming all over the place, as the picture shows – the ones below are the ones at the top of our driveway that had  bloomed early last week:

At work today: I had a surreal experience at the downtown store, and it was related to Star Wars, of all things. A customer came in who challenged my perceptions of reality, as well as my self-control. A simple transaction: he wanted to cash several cheques... but when I saw his name on the items, it was all I could do not to laugh and rub my eyes! He had changed his name to match that of a famous Star Wars character, whom he bore more than a passing resemblance to( and no, it wasn’t Chewbacca! ). I was totally non-plussed, as by sheer coincidence almost ten years ago I had created a file in our MMart computer system with the SAME name for training purposes... AND HIS SIGNATURE MATCHED MY OLD ‘CREATED’ ONE NEARLY PERFECTLY! It was really, really weird, as I kept expecting the walls around me to ripple Matrix-style, or a camera crew to pop out of the ceiling; the world under my feet shifted ever so subtly. I did manage to keep my professional calm and had him on his way fairly quickly, but I could tell by the smile in his eyes that he half-expected me to say something the whole time about his name – which I imagine is WHY he changed it in the first place. A very, very weird experience, especially given the serendipitous match of my own signature-creation and his. Sometimes, the world is so strange!

March 21 –  Newt News on my One Day Off

Hooray! News yesterday that Newt and John will be updated by Mike Hogue this Spring! Fantastic... I’ve been waiting a while for this duo to have new adventures, and I can hardly stop jumping on the couch from sheer joy. I think I may need a t-shirt...

It was also my sixth day in a row working yesterday, which will be a common theme for me up until the first week of May – we’re chronically understaffed and though we have enough people coming online in April, we won’t have 100% confidence in-place until the end of the month. More overtime, and even less sleep for me, as I’ve commenced packing for the move. What pains me is that I’ll likely have to keep a fair number of my books in storage, as there will simply be no room for them. On the bright side, this also means I’ll be less tempted to read and more inclined to write or work on my podcasts... so that’s good in the long run.

Being as busy as I am already, I will still have Sundays off, so the blog will still appear each week albeit in a somewhat more condensed form. Until next week then!