Costumes, Comments and Cyber Commerce

The word of the week is gregarious.

Oct 26 – Deleting Negativity?

Today was about the power of words, which can harm and hurt so easily.

This blog, like always, is open to comments and one of my friends left a fairly detailed one in response to a single sentence from last week: the one about the noisy child in the theater.

I won't get into the details, as it's all water under the bridge, but they took exception to my expectation that I'd enjoy a movie at a theater full of young families with the possibility of so much noisy disruption. I admit I didn't expect it to be all that quiet during the film, but neither did I expect one to take their child to produce so much noise for so long without any decisive action on the part of the parent.

The comment, though not intentionally vicious, threw me into a emotional spiral which left me in a tizzy all day long. It made me question myself as a person, in terms of how I viewed other people, as well as how well I was doing in all aspects of my life recently. The lack of progress last week for my business, combined with other issues on my mind, meant that today's comment kicked me where it hurt and left me reeling in an emotional low, for almost the entire day.

Such are the power of words.

Fortunately, my own response-comment that I left, combined with the e-mail I sent my friend, allow me to fully explain myself so that he understood where I was coming from. I also was able to understand exactly where he was coming from and our communications meant we reached a mutual understanding amicably, without condemnation on either side for our actions.

Such is the power of friendship.

In a rare move, I deleted both comments from last week's blog, but only at the suggestion of my friend. As I said, it's now water under the bridge and it's not worth having it hanging over our heads: we both learned something today and I'm feeling much better now writing this entry that I did on  that particular day...

Oct 27 –Science Of Selling

Gadzooks– I sold my Amiga!

As I mentioned last week, I listed a few things on eBay this month to clear some space - about a dozen cubic feet or so, overall. I was hopeful that some of it would sell for what I asked, but I had no idea that my need I would go so quickly, even given the more-than-fair price I was asking for everything that was include. I've spent a fair bit on it over the years and I had a good idea what it was worth, even today, 20+ years after first purchasing it.

A lucky buyer jumped on it after only a day on eBay, using BuyItNow and paying immediately. I rushed around last night to pack everything into a large, sturdy box to send it to the states. All told, the box was as big as a mini fridge and weighed almost 60 pounds, necessitating some help this morning from my amazing girlfriend to wrangle it into a vehicle and down to the post office first thing before work. I was tickled that my estimate of its shipping costs were accurate to within one dollar given its weight and size – how’s that for accuracy given just a scale and a tape measure!

So I'm pretty damn happy, in that the buyer will get a lot of good use out of my still perfectly-working Amiga and I get some money out of the deal. There’s no way I would have been able to get any more use out of the machine, given how busy I am now and it makes me feel good that someone is going to give it a good home at last, instead of having such a great system languish unused in a few storage boxes.

I still have a large single lot of Amiga games for sale, as well as a few collectibles that have decent value, but even if those don't sell this week, I will count it as a success, especially as eBay's special offer this month was to let users list items without any additional fees added if they sold - in effect, I sold it for free!

How sweet is that, as a final note to my Amiga’s decades-long journey with me?

Oct 28 – Privilege

I’m not a fan of the 1%.

Actually, let me rephrase that: I'm not a fan of those people whose wealth makes them ignorant of how the rest of the world lives and works and functions in general. Having money should not mean that you become completely detached from the reality that most of the rest the world lives in, in terms of the value of a dollar.

That's why Donald Trump sticking his foot in his mouth this week is so poignant:

Everything is relative, I understand: the cost of a meal at a restaurant to me, while not exorbitant, would be beyond reach of some of this country's poorest people and while I don't eat out more than a few times a week, some people don't bat an eye at taking one or two meals a day out of their wallet instead of out of a brown paper bag.

Donald Trump probably doesn't even know what his groceries cost. Nor does he care.

Oct 29 – Costume Day!

It was a magic time at work today!

I wore a medieval outfit, cobbled together from several different outfits that I have purchased over the years. Unfortunately, one of them seems to have had a boot cover gone missing, so I had to improvise by wrapping a similar-colour belt around the other boot. I think it looks pretty good:

We had our usual contest at work and while I didn't win this year, I was told that I was a close second for the detail work I did, including the foam LARP sword that I wielded. I think next year all go high-tech again, using my phone( my new one, not my old broken Samsung ) in combination with the costume to create some sound or voice affects. I have yet to decide what I will do, however.

It'll probably have a cape though; I really like capes.

One thing I can't do anymore is indulge in these sweet treats that are part and parcel of the Halloween experience, at least for younger trick-or-treaters. While I nibbled on a total of one or two candies throughout the day, other people gladly dug into their candy bags throughout the day. It's funny how while I miss the experience, I don't crave the candies themselves anymore, even the ones that used to be my favorites such as Mars bars or peanut butter cups.

I think it's more about the experience now, of enjoying the costumes and stepping outside oneself to become someone else, for a little while at least - kind of like being an actor, I guess.

Oct 30 – Hot Water

Kettles are passé, nowadays.

Given how people keep getting busier every year, who has time to wait for water to boil? Not to mention keeping the kettle full, the mess it makes if it's not well-designed and the unfortunate tendency for one to run out of water if a few people want to have hot drinks of the same time.

Enter the countertop hot water dispenser - they're amazing!

I had one at work years ago, as part of the water cooler that the company provided in the employee area at the back the store. I loved being able to just pull the switch down and have instant hot water for tea or hot chocolate or soup… whatever you desired. No waiting!

While that sort of comedians comes at a fair premium of a price, if you are a careful shopper then you can get something similar for your home. A few days ago, I espied a 4-litre( a sizable capacity! )dispenser on sale at NewEgg.ca, and when I looked closer, I saw that the price dropped dramatically when you ordered two units: they came to only $35 each, with free shipping! So I grabbed a pair of them, fast, as the price seemed just too good to be true - most of the dispensers I had been looking at were at least 3 to 4 times that price!

Checking back today, I saw that NewEgg was sold out of the heaters – I had been smart to purchase them so quickly! When the units arrived today, I unpacked the one, setting it up easily within a few minutes and soon it was happily boiling water, finishing the full 4L in about 20 minutes.

A quick test confirm that the water was indeed gloriously hot and dispensed instantly from the spout at the push of a button – no more waiting for tea on a busy morning before work! My sister fell in love with the dispenser immediately, as she is a fan of hot soups and not having to wait for the water is especially valuable to her.

While more expensive units have timers and other features which this one does not, I did add a simple external timer to turn it off during the day and on again for a few hours once we're both home again from work, thus saving a fair bit of power that would be used to keep it hot all day unnecessarily. I'm really pleased with the purchase and I see it saving us both a lot of time.

Not to mention not costing us much in the first place!

Oct 31 – HALLOWEEN!

I don’t know why, but I’m really excited about Halloween this year.

Probably because for the last few years, I haven’t gone out on the actual night at all. Huh – that’s simple enough.

The day didn't start out so well though. It was raining heavily and since I was up early, thanks to the gusting noise outside, I decided to get some laundry started before anyone else this morning.

On my way to do laundry, I saw this:

Thinking quickly, I trotted back to my apartment( I can’t run, thanks to a gimpy knee tendon ) and grabbed an old oversized towel to stuff in the gap under the front door were all the water was flooding in. I then sat there to babysit the door until the superintendent could arrive, as anyone silly enough to enter through the front would let all the water gushed into the lobby instead of simply trickling through the towel as it was currently doing.

I ended up sitting there for almost an hour, as the super came and went to try and find pumps and or other paraphernalia. As it turned out, the drain grates at the front were simply blocked with leaves, a stupid oversight that apparently the rental company for the building knew about but hadn't taken corrective measures for yet - resulting in a costly flood.

Major disaster averted, I spent a good part of my day doing things around the apartment, some of them business related but most of them simply catching up from my week.

Dinnertime was a delicious pizza with my girlfriend, after which we headed out to attend a Halloween party in the North end of the city. She was dressed as a witch, whereas I had a rather different getup – check out these party pics:

While I thought my outfit was pretty obvious, only a few people got it right away. I would have thought the ‘I Heart Jar Jar’ tag or the Walt Disney Deathstar logo would have given it away, but perhaps it was a little too dark at the party for people to make the connection:

Also, in case you didn’t notice it, one of the images from the party collage is of a homemade electric chair( non-working! )complete with flashing LED lights when you throw the switch. Incredible! As you can see from the decorations, the hosts go all-out for Halloween and I have to say it was even better than last year…

Now, I’ll leave you with a classic, PLUS: ‘The Raven’ by E.A. Poe, read by… Christopher Walken!!

Nov 1 – Passwords!

When’s the last time you changed your passwords?

I change mine every 3-6 months, depending on the criticality of the password: my banking, Google and Facebook get updated more regularly than say, access to some online shopping sites. All the same, I consider myself pretty secure online, with long / complex passwords, two-step authentication and good data practices( not checking things like bank accounts over public wifi )to keep myself safe. It's especially good idea when you're in another city.

Which is why I was surprised to get THIS message this afternoon:

As October is National Cyber Security Month, I find it a little ironic that I received this warning message, but I’m grateful that Google’s systems know my login habits well enough to wonder what I was suddenly doing in New York, screwing up a password attempt. Seeing as I hadn't been in New York since October 2014, there's only one explanation: someone scooped some of my data while I was there.

Needless to say, I changed my password for that account immediately. I also double-checked some of my other accounts that I had used while I was in New York this time last year, just in case my brief time spent on public Wi-Fi had resulted in some of my data being captured that I was not aware of while it was happening. It could've been at a public coffee shop or perhaps while I was killing time at the airport; it's hard to say, as one doesn't usually keep track of such things.

Which is why it's important to have good data practices, so that you stay as safe as possible when you're not thinking about people trying to steal your data while you're getting on with your life. I'll rent a little bit more about this next week, but for now if you're reading this, think about changing some of your passwords if you haven't done so recently…

On another note, today marks that 8^th year since my family and I moved to BC. It's had its up and downs, drama and disaster, but overall things are looking better now than they have in quite a few years. Personally, I'm doing much better than I was in Ontario and I'm hopeful that the other areas of my life will catch up soon.

It's been a pretty full week, which turned out really well, in the end: in addition to the wonderful Halloween celebrations, three out of four of my Clear-Stuff-Out-Of-My-Too-Small-Place sold on eBay, so I am really pleased! I'll have more room and some more money in my pocket, and some lucky people out there are going to get a hold of some really good things of mine that I cherished for many years. Going into November, I'm looking to keep things positive!

Fantasies, Fallacies and Forges

The word of the week is tenacity.

Oct 19 – Election

What to say about the election results today…?

One thing to start: I’m glad to see Harper gone. As are a lot of other Canadians - you can look up those numbers for yourself. You can find lists of his stupidities online easily and while I am the first to admit that Harper’s government is of the first to make mistakes, they sure made a lot of people angry with their policies and positions for Canada.

Good riddance to bad rubbish

I will say I'm a little surprised that the Liberals got a majority government, as the numbers didn't indicate that their victory would be to such a large degree. All the same, I think that overall a Liberal-led government will be beneficial to the country at least in the short term, hopefully reversing some or all of the stupidity that Harper and his cronies inflicted on Canada during their time in power.

What really struck me about this election is the number of people everywhere who were discussing it for the last few months. You couldn't go anywhere without overhearing people discussing the politics of the pending election, which I've never heard such a wide degree in all my time.

If nothing else, we have to thank Harper for giving us something to pull Canadians together to vote against.

Oct 20 – Soldier On…

The credit union called me today about my business loan application, but I missed it as I was working. They did leave a message though:

I’d been turned down.

*pause for reflection, then shrugs*

I’m not surprised, really; I’d given it a good shot, but figured that I had a 50/50 chance, at best. Not having hard assets( get your mind out of the gutter! )like a vehicle, house or other tangible property made it questionable if anyone will take a risk on me for a few thousand dollars.

I’m used to that, too. Thanks for asking.

All the same, I’m not all that discouraged by today’s news. As I just said: I’m used to it: despite my solid credit rating, I don’t fit a category banks( or credit unions )like in any substantial way. If I had a dollar for every time I’ve heard the words ‘get a co-signer’ I could probably have eaten several lavish meals over the course of the last 20 years. Plus have some left over for dessert.

You get the picture.

In any case, I am forging ahead( yes, I went there )and purchasing the Glowforge myself this week. While it won’t be easy, it is possible, and I’m determined to make a go of things to move ahead with my life financially. It may seem odd to spend a fair piece of money for financial gain, but I’m always too well aware of the long run.

I’m tired of treading water, tired of staying in the same spot, never getting ahead of the tide – just floating. I want to swim towards shore, to stop slowly sinking, and today’s news only emphasizes that I’ll have to do it myself, boat or no boat.

My beach is waiting.

Oct 21 – Fun and Hot Water

I decorated my desk at work today: huzzah!

I’ve not had a place to decorate( ie. show off stuff )for many years; the closest I ever got was decorating the branches at MMart a few times a season and even then, I usually wasn’t the one doing it. Which kinda defeats the purpose.

So this year I decided to go all out, having been planning it since last year when I bought some of the decorations to use the following Halloween. Here's what I came up with:

As you can see, I'm a big fan of spiderwebs. Less obvious are the two giant spiders hanging around the area, you to them about a foot in diameter and quite cute, I think. I also added a severed robot head, with red spotlight, as well as various spiders and bats hanging in the webs. I even have a smoke machine, of a sorts, that uses regular tap water to produce a white mist. Unfortunately it's hard to see in the photos and quite honestly is not nearly as effective as actual smoke machines are, in that the area around the gets wet fairly quickly so that I only run it to show people now and then.

Soon after my decorations were complete today, the Director stopped in her tracks and came over to tell me that I was a ‘fun person’ in that she's noticed I always throw myself fully into whatever I'm doing. I told her that I just enjoy being able to have fun at work, especially when we can decorate for the season and have others enjoy that effort.

Oct 22 – Fantasy

I gave a much-delayed presentation tonight for my writing group.

Originally scheduled to take place at the end of August, I had to cancel due to my cellulitis and tonight was the first open slot we had to let me present.

The topic? The Fantasy Genre, and all it contains, which is substantial! Unknown to me when I first started my research on the topic months ago, fantasy is an ever evolving genre which has only been around for less than 50 years. By last count, there are more than 60 distinctive sub-genres, which is an incredible number given that most people are only familiar with about a dozen or so. You can learn more about this over at BestFantasyBooks.com, whose genre listing is fairly well complete and the site itself is rather fun to browse around.

As for myself, I kind of burned out on the fantasy genre a while back, for which I blame Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series: there was just too much to keep straight in my head( or even on paper )and without my being able to find a comprehensive online guide tree along with, it sort of fell by the wayside. Prior to Robert Jordan series, I often enjoyed books by Ed Greenwood, as well as other authors from the Dungeons & Dragons stable of fantasy books - there were so many that I collected and I still own quite a few, all of which still have a special place on my bookshelves.

Given that right now I'm barely reading anything, was books piling up on my shelves unread, fantasy will probably be taking a back seat for a few more years until I can make more time for it. I'm not too upset about that, in that there's a lot of it floating around in my head and tonight's presentation only underscored the fact that it's a vast genre that needs proper time to explore.

Oct 23 – I Am George!

Sometimes, you have to give in, despite yourself.

After having dinner with my girlfriend, we popped over to Value Village to browse through the costume selection there, in case there is anything that caught her eye or mine. While I have two separate Halloween costumes already prepared( sorry, no spoilers! )it seems I was destined for third…

Totally out of the blue while shopping tonight, the young security guard in the aisle in front of me turned around and said “You know, you should go as George Lucas this year.”

I managed to find almost this EXACT shirt!

Surprised, I had to laugh, because he's about the eight person who's told me the exact same thing, though the first random stranger to do so - everyone else has been a coworker or friend. My thick wavy hair, combined with my full gray beard, simply screams ‘Star Wars Creator’ to people, I guess.

I should probably take a hint.

Coincidentally, I was able to find a Lucas-esque plaid shirt in a dark color at Value Village tonight, along with a can of costume-grade grey hair spray. Now all I have to do is stuff a pillowcase and plunk both a Disney logo and some dollar signs on it, then then the costume will be complete.

Out of the mouths of strangers comes greatness…?

PS – I bought the Glowforge today, so that’s around $3K invested in myself… the first units will start shipping in early 2016. I’ve made arrangements to go pick it up from a place just inside the border in the USA, so that will save me about $400 overall, even with the gas / ferry costs. Here’s hoping that today’s expenditure is the first step towards a better financial future for me…

Oct 24 – Free Movie and OMNIrom

You should always get up early if there's a freebie in the offing!

Such was the case this morning, when I headed out the door early to make it to the local Cineplex by 9 AM to see... a free movie! Playing today was an enjoyable flick:

FULL HD DM2 goodness!

Apart from one kid who wouldn't stop screaming for 30 minutes straight at one point( Parent: really? Take him outside, don't just keep repeating 'shhhh!' )the movie was fantastic. By noon, I was home and had settled into my first major task of the day: upgrading my ASUS TF300T tablet to the latest Android 5.1.1 version, called Lollipop( cute name ). I planned on doing this months ago, but I didn't feel comfortable until now, having spent that time studying the process thoroughly so that I knew exactly what I was getting into.

The upgrade process itself is fairly simple, but you have to make sure that you follow proper precautions( backing things up! )plus each step, one by one. I did so, and within an hour had a working 5.1.1 Android tablet. It ran so smoothly, so MUCH better than the 4.4.4 versions, with no appreciable lag whatsoever. It just goes to show what properly-written software can do!

Unfortunately, later this same evening, a ‘Nightly Update’ appeared on my system menu for OMNIrom. As this was the idea in the first place( regular updates )I set it to install… and on the next boot, several Google processes commenced to crash continuously.

*sigh*

So it’s back to the drawing board, after about an hour of trying to correct the issue, including another Factory Wipe and reinstall. I’ll likely find another ROM to install( KatKISS? CMmod? )this week, when I get a chance.

Oct 25 – Selling Onwards

What to do on a rainy day, you ask? Why not sell some things?

Having taken all sorts of pictures earlier in the week of various things cluttering up my place, I set to work on the written side of things, creating words to go with the dozens of pictures – plus combining / editing said pictures to show said clutter in a much better light.

Hours later, I had five listings up on eBay, two of which are my Amiga hardware / software lots. While I won’t be getting anywhere near what I paid for everything originally, thanks to 20 years of depreciation, it’s still a decent sum to put towards what I’ve spent on the Glowforge this week, presuming that things sell. I’ve been realistic about what to ask for things, so I am hopeful.

It’s funny; eBay sn’t what it used to be.

A decade ago, it was the place to go, an economy all unto itself; even today, it reports over ten billion USD in revenue a year, though it’s growth nowadays isn’t nearly what rival Amazon is seeing - and that’s the key factor as to why eBay isn't still on top.

Consumers have left eBay’s uncertain auction-bid-process in favour of more convenient shopping online, at places like Amazon, Walmart and even Alibaba. When it’s easy to research prices on items in minutes, people would much rather pay a little more to buy their items immediately, instead of waiting a week or so to discover if they’ve won an auction or not – who has the time?

I myself shop mostly online, as many places offer free basic shipping; I don’t have to go out for more than groceries or basic necessities locally, anymore. Which is nice, as I don’t have a car and taking the bus is a pain… as is cycling these days. I know my prices and places and save as much as I can by shopping around – sites like ShopBot.com and RedFlagDeals.com make it easy to find deals on things I need.

Things I want, well… those will have to wait until this time next year.

I'm tired. Spending the last two weeks working on my business plan didn't pay off hand I need to recover. I'm hopeful that I can now re-direct my energies towards other things, including my writing and business preparation, so that I can be prepared for starting my business on my own in early 2016. Having spent all this 3-day weekend being busy, I don't actually have anything scheduled for any night this week, so it should be fairly relaxing, at least as much as I can make it so.

Workbench, Wages and a Win10 Win

The word of the week is mellifluous.

Oct 12 – Adios, Amiga?

It’s time.

For 20 years, I've hung onto my old Amiga 2000, in the hopes that one day I'll be able to set it up and use it again to play all the wonderful games that I still remember with such fondness. Workbench 1.3 and 3.1, Guru Meditation errors... ah, memories.

However, it's just not going to happen and I have to face the fact that it's just taking up space. Even though it's in perfect working condition, I have to let it go to someone who can make better use of it. I have quite a collection of games with original boxes as well, enough that it's going to be a challenge to ship it to whoever manages to snag it on eBay in the next few weeks or months.

Most of the collection, plus hardware pics and screencaps

I really don't want to sell it, but to be brutally realistic, I also don't want to sit around waiting for games to load up on a system whose CPU runs at a paltry 25mHz. to put that in perspective, my ‘older’ 4-year-old AMD 905e CPU runs at 3.7 gHz, several hundred times faster. And that's without factoring in that many of the games run from floppy disks, or off a first-generation hard disk.

It's unknown if anybody will purchase the Amiga from me, even if I price it's quite reasonably, due to the shipping costs. The Amiga itself weighs over 30 pounds with just a keyboard and mouse, while the 5 boxes of games are about 20 pounds and several feet in all dimensions for everything. I spent too many hours today taking every single Amiga-related bit of hardware and software out of their boxes, laying them out and photographing them to use in the sale listing next weekend. You can see some( not all )of the pictures compiled above.

Hopefully, somebody out there will give it a good home; I certainly did.

Oct 13 – Walmart Wages

When it comes to lifestyle, your job is a critical factor. At least for most people.

If you're working for minimum wage, there's not a lot of lifestyle to be had in terms of financial purchase power. I should know: I've worked for minimum wage too often and for too long in my life and far too recently, I might add.

What is minimum wage mean for employers, however? One word: profit.

For most employers, wages make up anywhere from 30 to 40% of their operating costs, meaning the less they can pay employees, the more margins are available for profit for the business. The larger the company, the more savings can be had by maintaining a lean workforce who are paid as close to possible as a minimum for their industry.

Unsurprisingly extremely large employers, such as Walmart, stand to save the most money by paying their employees the least when it comes to wages. While the following video has been online since the spring of 2015, I haven't seen it before this week and I find it resonates with me on several levels. I do understand that it posits several simplifications in the formula that uses, but all the same, it captures the essence of how profit is king in a modern capitalist society and the pawns are the workers:

Oct 14 – Battlefront Beauty

Oh, to have money to spend on a high-end gaming PC!

There's just one game I want to play right now: Star Wars Battlefront.

It is the most gorgeous game, graphics-wise, and those incredible visuals go a long way towards giving the player the feeling of total immersion in the Star Wars universe. Have a look at this video from the beta, in which a player simply strolls around and does his best to capture the wondrous visual eye candy that can be had inside the confines of this latest entry in the silicon Star Wars universe:

I probably won't be able to reformat and upgrade my main PC until early 2016. Even then, the specs are such for SW: Battlefront that running it at any sort of decent resolution will be a questionable endeavor. But, I may have to try: to be able to realize a childhood dream of being in the Battle Of Hoth, well…

How much is that worth, I ask you?

Oct 15 – At a Book Launch Party!

T’was a fun night to be an author.

Or at least, the friend of an author, as I attended Astra Crompton’s launch of her second book,  Legend Of The Quill. I had a small part in its final version, having given feedback on the last draft for the better part of the last year.

The launch was held at a local coffee shop, Gorge-Ous Coffee, which caters to writers in many ways and was the perfect place to hold the event. All told, about two dozen people were present for the launch, which filled the shop to the maximum.

Astra read for selections from her book, in reverse chronological order and you could have heard a pin drop during each reading, the audience was so attentive. It was a lovely launch and I hope that she'll gain traction from her sales online at places like Amazon so that she can continue working on the other dozen-plus books in her series.

For myself, I hope to have a NYC launch, or perhaps simultaneous launches in several dozen cities… who knows what the future will bring? I just have to work hard to get there!

Oct 16 – Business? Me?

I took a big step today towards financial independence: I’m setting up a business.

Today I had a meeting with my credit union to discuss the feasibility of starting my own home business, with a small loan to get me going in the next few months.

It would be a based on the purchase of a Glowforge in the next week, to use for laser cutting / etching services on a small scale. I would be focusing on several specific markets locally, with an eye towards expanding into the rest of the province and eventually across Canada. With any luck and a whole lot of hard work, I may be even able to reach the point where I will have steady international sales.

Understandably, I've been very busy for the last two weeks putting together a comprehensive business plan. Not having written one before, it was a struggle to stay focused while presenting relevant data and numbers to support my suggested endeavor. Nevertheless I think I succeeded in creating a solid plan that presents an excellent case for making a go at my getting ahead financially.

The meeting at the credit union went very well, with several of the staff commenting on how well I had crafted my business plan and an interesting note, how much of a difference character makes in loan decisions - something I hadn't known and so I'm grateful I had the character of myself to present to them today.

I'll be on pins and needles for the next week, while I await their decision. There is a time constraint involved, in that the initial pre-order( with a substantial discount! )for the Glowforge ends on October 24, so the timing is a little tight. I'm hopeful that things will come through before then and that I'll be able to make the first purchase for my business out of an approved loan.

Wish me luck!

Oct 17 – Finished Prime

Well, that didn’t take long…

About six weeks ago, I started watching Transformers Prime in earnest on Netflix. I'd dabbled in the series a year ago when I first saw was available on Netflix, but only recently did the stories really start to resonate with me; the writing on the show is fantastic, as I've mentioned before and the voice acting is stellar - I hadn't known that both Ernie Hudson and Markie Post were part of the cast.

Watching it at home and on my phone( over wifi, darn data limits… )I continued to be impressed by the show's quality and depth. Not to mention the gorgeous HD graphics gracing every frame.

Today I watched the final episode and it did not disappoint! Everything wrapped up fairly nicely, with an eye towards a possible continuance of the series in different directions. I do have to say I wasn't sure how they would top themselves, so to speak, considering the action that has gone on in the plot lines over the course of the three seasons. It really felt satisfying to end the series today.

In viewing Transformers Prime, I was once again reminded of the thousands of hours of television that I'd like to get around to watching, shows that I have saved on my computer or listed on Netflix. It's amusing to think that I could spend several years just watching television while at the moment I don't have cable, nor do I have the time to indulge such an admittedly luxurious habit.

Maybe in five or 10 years; I should still have all my saved DVD’s then. Considering that at last count, my digitize files from my DVD collection were pushing 3 TB in size, I've had to find some room on multiple drives to fit it all in.

On what media that's all going to be archived on five years hence from now, I have no idea…

Oct 18 – Upgrades

It worked!

Months ago, I attempted to install Windows 10 on both my desktop and laptop, with no success on either. While I understood why the installation on my desktop didn’t work due to various software issues with Windows, I was perplexed as to why my laptop failed to upgrade. Several calls to Microsoft tech support didn't resolve the issue and so I shelved it. 

Until today.

On a whim, I started up the Windows 10 installation program and to my delight, it got further than it ever had on the previous three attempts, showing me this screen:

After only a few minutes, with the laptop having rebooted three or four times, Windows 10 stated that it was installed – huzzah! A little poking around confirmed that everything was working properly; with the usual driver updates aside, it looks like my laptop is better than new!

I'll have to play with Win10 for the next few weeks to see how exactly it's better than the much-maligned Windows 8.1, which I actually didn't mind all that much since I didn't use the tiled Metro interface at all. I'm hoping that it will extend battery life as well as help the system seem speedier with the updated OS and generally extend the usable lifetime of the laptop, which says it doesn't have discrete graphics I don't use as a gaming machine so much as a general-purpose computer.

Definitely a win today!

  

This is the earliest blog post ever, having worked on it starting well before lunch as I've lot more to do before I go to bed. Oddly, I haven't heard a siren go by all day, which is really unusual for where I live so I'm really enjoying the relative quiet. There's been the usual traffic noise, including motorcycles, but for the most part it's been a relaxing day sitting here doing work on the computer. It's going to be a busy week up ahead, with three different meetings of my writing group as well as awaiting news about my business loan application. See you next week!