Steebs, Sun and Savings

Fall is here...

Oct 20 - Petty Thoughts

I happened to hear on the radio that today was Tom Petty's birthday, so he was 58 today, almost the same age as my parents. Well, not quite, but the same generation. I have not heard any of his more recent things, but some of his videos are just amazing, all the more so considering that they run fully-animated for the entire length of the song - not easy and not cheap to do. Watch 'em!

I may have mentioned it before, but the main radio station here in Victoria plays a LOT of the music I like. Quite a few classic rock oldies, plus groups like Barenaked Ladies, Matchbox20 and of course, a ton of Tom Petty. When I was listening to 104.5 or 99.9 FM in Niagara, I'd be lucky to hear one Petty song a week. Here, I hear at least one a DAY, if not more - fantastic! Plus I never DID manage to get a call through for the damn ChumFM Jet vacation contest...

Oct 21 - Series-ously, folks

As I am browsing through YouTube, I keep finding myself looking up old forgotten TV shows to see how many episodes have made it onto the site from people's private archives; VHS quality still looks OK at regular YouTube resolution, despite it being an analog recording.

One series I recall with fondness is 'V' - which was really an eight-part miniseries that evolved into a not-as-good followup series. Amazingly, despite the massive budget overruns of the original series, serious consideration was being given a few years ago to doing a new take on 'V' for TV. My favourite writer, J. Michael Straczynski, even wrote a pilot treatment for the new series, which is fantastic - you can read it in its entirety here. Alien lizards, giant spaceships hovering over cities, cool laser weapons... I loved 'V' for those things and more... as well as scratching my head over things like the 'Starchild' and other gaffes that can only be attributed to bad TV Exec interference in the series. Ah well, I was a kid then... TV politics and budget realties were well beyond my scope of the world.

Speaking of things I liked as a kid, I really, really wanted one of the Imperial AT-AT walkers from The Empire Strikes Back. I was given a choice at the time though: the Milennium Falcon( the COOL new, customizable and vastly improved 2008 model is here )or the AT-AT, as a one-off birthday gift. I chose the Falcon, and in hindsight I think it was the better choice, as I got a lot more play value out of it... despite its fragility. Still, the thought has crossed my mind over the years to pick up a cheap used AT-AT on eBay or somewhere... until I saw THIS. Guess I should have opted for more Lego instead, eh? Still, I JUST discovered that someone is selling models of the alien ships from V: The Series... I always wanted one of those, since they never officially released any sort of toy versions back in the 80's. I envy kids nowadays though, when they get toys like this- but I must admit that the majority of purchasers will be collectors, who are really just kids at heart.

Oct 22 - Sketchy Steebs

A lady today, who introduced herself as a sketch artist, came back to the branch after a first visit to cash a chq, and asked if she could take my picture. I was flattered, but had to refuse due to company policy about pictures being taken in the branch. She said that she had not seen my particular combination of curly dark hair and greying goatee before, which amused me. I spotted her later on in the week while I was out and smiled, but for some reason she didn't recognize me... which means I am not all that distinctive after all. Huh. Perhaps the TV / Film career I had planned might best be put on hold, despite my proximity to Vancouver... which is ironic, as I managed to move out here JUST as both SG-1 and SG: Atlantis got canceled, both of which filmed in Vancouver. D'oh!

Once I was home, I headed out again shortly afterwards to the Cook St. Starbuck's to try and take advantage of the sunshine. I managed to get in about an hour of decent, if chilly, patio time before the light waned enough to bring on the real chills, then moved indoors for the remainder of my two ours of free internet access. I had also set up a VPN connection with my home PC, which I tested while I was there - worked like a charm! I was able to securely access any shared folders from my home PC, negating the need to carry duplicate files around with me. Getting Mp3 files to stream fast enough eluded me though, so it is a work in progress but still nice to see work... for free!

While I was on the patio though, a bit of serendipitous luck happened. An older gentleman in line had commented on my Paul McCartney Steebs card, which he had only seen once before way out east. He struck up a conversation with me again while I was out on the patio with my laptop; turns out he is from a company that designs aviation software and who are looking for a technical writer to update / expand their manual. While not comitting to anything or overstating my own qualifications, I settled with getting in touch with him fairly soon to discuss the matter. Which also meant I had to update my Soronos.com site for the first time in... 5 years? Longer? Darn it, these things sneak up on you sometimes!

Oct 23 - Free Budgets

I have been looking at various ways to stretch my savings and lower my monthly budget pain, as you may have guessed from my decision to remove cable TV from my bills - for now. I have also discovered that my computers heat the place rather nicely without any additional help, given its relatively small size, as I mentioned in previous blog posts. Given that my electric bills have been rather low, and my gas bills correspondingly small, the plan seems to be working this far; with average temperatures at night here hovering around 6 degrees and interior temperatures at around 24, with no additional heat sources, I find things are balanced quite nicely.

Another place I came across with tons of great savings ideas is The Dollar Stretcher. This site is packed with great ideas to make one's budget stretch, and does not involve anything drastic such as growing your own vegetables in the bathtub or living by flashlight once the sun goes down.

One thing I have always found exorbitantly expensive is... MS Office. Even the Student Edition is far too expensive, though it HAS come down( a little )since my university days. A fantastic FREE atlernative is OpenOffice, affectionately known as 'OOo' on the 'net. This is an open-source, community-driven alternative to MS Office that does ALL the same things... for free. Better yet, it can read and save MORE formats than MS's product can, and is constantly being updated, again for free. So if you balk( like me )at spending money every few years for MS's bloatware, give Open Office a try... I've been using it for years and can attest it works as well as MS's products. Without the cost.

Oct 24 - Here's a tip

Someone left me a tip today at work, something that has very rarely happened in all the years with the company; they are officially discouraged for various reasons which I will not get into. Despite my protests though, a gentleman left me $20.00 when all was said and done, stating that he enjoys the fact that I am "Always friendly, efficient and well-spoken" when dealing with him. I thanked him and said that if he took a comment card with him to fill out to that effect, it would make my day. Hopefully it reaches head office, where it may offset the next insane person who walks in the door... more on that concept a few paragraphs down from here.

Again on the subject of cost savings, I am debating cancelling my Vonage line in Niagara... somewhat. It sees infrequent use, with few people to date using it to call me for free way, way out here in BC. I understand everyone's busy; so am I... but for now I am still on the fence about maintaining an easy link back east, unused as it is. Ah well.

Oct 25 - Lunch? Couch?

I had lunch today at The King & Thai( pun! )in Cook St. Village with a friend of a co-worker; the Thai restaurant is part of a mini-food court at the Village that will be expanding shortly. While the prices are not cheap, the portions are good, the place has two sunny patios AND best of all: it's good food! We ended up chatting about all sorts of tech topics over at Starbuck's until well into mid-afternoon, when the sun finally arced down enough to splash Steeb's patio with some warming rays. I have to admit, I am still adjusting to the concept of 'outdoor weather' here - people seemed perfectly content to sit outside in ten-degree weather, as long as the sun was shining, even if it was without much warmth. Dressing in layers and taking advantage of every decent weather day seems ingrained in folk around here, whereas I am used to holing up somewhere warm, or dashing from home to places with good heating and back again to a warm car.

In the evening, I worked on a few projects, including a little more on what I am tentatively titling "Half Lives" which is the story idea I had this past summer. I have several outlines plotted for it, and have been searching them for clichés on the 'net to avoid retreading ground others have written already. More on this as I develop the structure and get at least five chapters solidly written out... once I decide on WHICh chapters to write as a test, that is!

Late in the evening I nodded off for a while, which was nice as I did not know I was that tired: bonus nap! I haven't done that in a while, not since we sold off the extremly Comfy Couches that we had hauled around for years. Damn, I miss those couches... light, easy to move, and very nap-friendly.

Oct 26 - Sunny day, grumpy people

The fourth Sunday in a row I have worked so far has again turned typically beautiful outside, but since I was out for so long yesterday in decent weather I feel little longing to do the same today. Aside from the usual instinct to be anywhere BUT stuck at work, that is... but we all feel that way, most days.

Days like today tickle memories at the back of my head, of school days and crisp weather with winds tossing leaf piles to and fro across the ground. Bright sunshine and autumn colours always make me smile, for like Christmas, this time of year I find it easiest to summon memories I thought forgotten.

Yesterday was supposed to be when the old Daylight Savings Time for the fall season kicked in, but with the new DST brought into play back in 2007, it won't take effect until Nov. 2nd. Nice to see that we are keeping time with the USA so easily... good old Canadian sitck-up-for-itiveness. You can check your correct local time easily at TimeAndDate.com, which is detailed enough to take into account things like those few cities in BC that do NOT use DST - yes, there ARE places like that still around.

A bit of grim elderly humour today: I heard a faint rapping coming from the front area, yet the doorbell had not gone off. Going up front, I saw an elderly man standing at the front door with a walker, tapping his keys on the door. I motioned for him to come in... and spent the next 15 minutes trying to get him to use the unlocked front door. Apparently his strength, if you call it that, was not such that he could easily open our front door... a first, in my experience, for this location. Even writing large signs on scrap paper did not help, as it turns out he could barely see. Finally, after a few well-choreographed pantomimes of pulling hard on a door, I managed to get him into the branch... where he promptly complained that if I saw him having trouble, why had I not rushed out to help? I explained the concept of a secure area, but I think he was not really interested in any answer I was giving him. I hope that if I get that feeble in my years, that I will recognize my lack of strength and take steps to ensure I never spend time tapping at open doors, waiting to be let in... grumpily.

On that note, I headed home in the dark, eagerly awaiting NEXT Sunday, when I will be able to head home in something other than total darkness. Some NWN time, as well as listening to SG: Atlantis commentaries while typing up the blog... and here we are.


It seems we have a dearth of comments of late - I can see that people are reading the blog, which is GREAT... but few comments. Is it that I cover all the bases, or are people so stunned at the end that they forget to comment? I just can't tell.

Weirdos, Writing and Weather

No mention of spiders in this week's blog... though there IS a new entry in my Nemster list...

Oct 13 - Humans... and not.

Newt and John, a webcomic by my good friend Mike, reached their 20th episode milestone today. I've greatly enjoyed their adventures so far, as their antics capture the hilarity of two roomies dealing with bizarre adventures. I should also mention that I have a great custom image of Newt, John and myself in a spaceship, that Mike made as a going-away gift for me last year when I left for B.C. - it hangs proudly by my door, so I can get a grin every time I arrive or leave my home.

Along the same vein, I give you: The Basic Laws of Human Stupidity. Not to be confused with Human Idiocy, or even the silly things people do when they think No-One Is Watching. One VERY early internet List I love is the Evil Overlord List, which manages to combine villainy, cliches and stupidity remarkably well... if you don't laugh, then you haven't thought hard enough about how to take over the world. You should watch a few episodes of Pinky and the Brain, just to see how NOT to go about it... especially if you're two lab mice.

Which brings up movies. Now, I've already posted about how I MUCH prefer to watch movies at home nowadays, so I won't go into that. Here, I will instead briefly blog about Things That Only Happen in the Movies... like every car explodes in a fireball when it crashes, or how locks magically vanish from doors with a few quick shots from a pistol. A show that has done its fair share of debunking movie myths is the much-loved Mythbusters, who by and large have managed credible experiments to test the accuracy of many a Myth. If you visit their site, you can see the many myths they have discussed but NOT brought to the show to test, for various reasons. I guess testing to see if humans mutate into anger-driven giant berserkers after massive gamma-ray exposure would be one of those off-air theories... darn.

Oct 14 - Hard work and gadgets

I had an interesting thought in the shower today, and it was entirely unrelated to hygiene. It occurred to me that everyone who achieves success always includes the phrase "it was a lot of hard work" - we hear it so much but it makes little visual impact. I had the image of a chain hoist pop into my head, like the ones mechanics use to hoist engine blocks. The analogy almost writes itself: the huge, complicated engine needs lots of work and know-how to run, but the initial process of GETTING to it is the hardest work. Each long pull on the chain hoist raises the massive engine a tiny bit, so long minutes of hard work are needed to raise the final product fractionally until one reaches the point where the detail work can begin. It is an analogy I like, and I hope to employ at a future date.

As for the future: I love gadgets, and one of the places I loved to go to FIND gadgets years ago was The Sharper Image, which had a store at the Walden Galleria mall in Buffalo NY. You could wander in, and on every shelf or floor display was a gadget you had never before imagined, or knew you needed, until that moment. Looking back, it is easy to see how most of it was overpriced and usually fufilled only a single, quasi-time-saving. That and Smithbooks were the two main reasons I liked to visit the Walden Galleria... as well as the fact that most of the food there seemed damned cheap compared to Canadian restaurants at the time. Lower standards or higher volume consumption? You decide.

Oct 15 - Writing, yep!

I have been plugging away at various writing projects, but progress has been slow of late - low energy and higher stress levels do not bode well for the creative spark. Still, I have been trying to keep various bits of writing advice in mind, including 'use your mood' to find different aspects of character and story that one would not find if you are feeling happy, energetic and relaxed... none of which relate to grim stories, villains or dire plot threads. So, with that in mind, I have been plugging away at outlined plot points, as well as tossing together little 'pastiche' bits to try and capture the mood at various points in my Novel Story.

One amusing place I have come across is How To Write a Best-Selling Fantasy Novel. Go see it.

Among all the great advice given, one common thread seems to be "You won't likely get rich from writing," which is fine by me... Fame, Fortune and Respect do not always go hand in hand, with J.K Rowling as the glaring platinum Ideal of Writing Success that everyone else has to try to follow. I figure if I can say what I want to say, in a way that other people want to read, and that brings in a little income, then all for the good. Like the other writers state, everyone is full of great ideas, so it is the few who learn to use the TOOLS of writing to HONE their skill, that will bring those with Talent to the top of the heap... with a little luck. *grin*

So if you cannot tell your adjectives from your adverbs, or what narrative perspective to use, or even notice why your page-long paragraphs seem to be boring people... then perhaps writing is not in your cards. So go be a professional poker player instead - from what I hear, your odds of success are much higher!

Oct 16 - Triad Thursday of Stress

Well, today COULD have been the day from hell, but it worked out nicely when all was said and done, despite a lot of unavoidable stress. Right after I opened the store, who showed up but... a company auditor! We had been warned that this week was a likely time for an audit, which they do quarterly( or more often )so I was not as dismayed as I could have been. Still, it meant I spent most of my day worrying that we had forgotten some detail that would crash our overall score - not having a manager at the branch will make you thing like that.

Adding to the joy was a visit by the head honcho for all of BC for our company, attended by our district manager. He was nice, but I got the impression of laser eyes noting every tiny flaw in the branch, and likely an unconscious urge to slip on a pair of dapper white gloves to run along the counters for dust. Still, I was busy enough that everyone stayed in the background doing their thing and not underfoot or looking over my shoulder, which was nice...

Did I mention yet that Crazy Lady came in today TOO? Yes, she managed to add to the Stress Triad today by coming in for NO reason other than to ask the most inane question I've heard YET. Apparently her sister, which she sent the money transfer to last week, is not in the UK but Zimbabwe... so she wants ME to call Western Union to ensure the transfer is 'held' ... and ALSO she did NOT want ANY calls made to HER residence about it! Apparently she is doing this on the sly... which I do not care a whit about, only that she vacate the branch and stop bothering me. Especially with inane questions and demands that I have NO ability( or desire )to fulfill, even if I wanted to. Amusingly, the Head Man from Head Office( heh )tried to break into the conversation, but backed off quickly as the Insane Gaze rolled in his direction... kind of like seeing that normal-looking dog in the park turn around to reveal the foam dripping from its jaws. Yeah.

Anyway, she left, the rest of them left... and then I left, to sprawl at home in a daze before relaxing with a few episodes of Atlantis. The second season has a commentary for almost EVERY episode, which is amazing - some of the details and directorial chatter is simply fascinating, as it shows how MUCH thought goes into every episode, and how you never catch some of it as it goes by so fast on-screen.

Oct 17 - Is it Day-ta or Dah-ta?

The morning vanished quickly getting the usual household doings done, then it was off to work. Fortunately, it was another nice day out; I have yet to run into the chill combination of very cool weather and rain, so cross yer fingers, as biking in that is no fun at all.

I found out today that the branch hours will be changing again in November, which will be for the better in several ways. Not the least of which is that I can sleep in EVERY day now, and manage to get home early enough to catch an hour or so of daylight around dinner - nice in the winter!

I've been looking at some storage options for my data for some time now, as I always like to have backups handy in case of disaster. Up to this point, that has always meant storage on an external hard drive, or putting critical files like family photos on DVD; annoying given their 'small' capacity, which meant a few years ago after a PC went wonky that I used THIRTY DVD's to back up and then restore my data. Impossible today, as I have ten times the data stored now as I did back then.

One solution may be a FREE service called aDrive.com, which gives ANYONE free online storage - 50 gigabytes worth! Their business model is based on duplication; they predict that among their entire userbase, many users will have copies of the same file, so all that aDrive has to do is determine that yes, two files ARE the same, and store just ONE copy while allowing both users to access it. In this way, the 'actual' space used by files such as MP3's or YouTube videos is greatly reduced. Nice, and if it keeps the service FREE, then I am all for it!

Oct 18 - Leafing Sunny

Cold this morning, not TOO bad at 7 degrees C, cold enough to see your breath though. The leaves are falling in small drifts along the roadside, though many trees are still quite green and leafy. I did see the most massive Canadian maple leaf today - the thing was as large as my two spread hands together! Wow! It could almost serve as a plate of sorts, though being dead and slight decayed might put a person off.

The sun is blazing outside, albeit without a lot of warmth... and people are smiling! I've always been fascinated by how people's moods and the weather are related, so today goes a long way towards adding data to that file. Without exception, every single customer today has been smiling, even the usually dour regulars, and all of them are busily scurrying about Doing Things.

It's amusing to see how quickly we get busy when the sun comes out... and odd how busy we remain when it is raining - my theory is that people don't like being 'trapped' at home on rainy days, but instead want to get out and shop or socialize at a mall or coffee shop. Group social dynamics is a fascinating field, which has elements of psychology and statisical analysis that combine in interesting and unusual ways.

Oct 19 - Sunday Harry

The third of my Month of Sundays today, and it was Not Too Bad. Relaxing, actually, as it was steady enough a flow of customers to make the clock move nicely towards closing time. I still love the fact that I have such a great view - the branch is located near a major intersection, and I have previously mentioned that a bus transfer point is next to the plaza too. Lots of activity to watch, which is great - no view of the mountains mind you, but it beats hell out of the backside of a building.

My neighbours are HUGE fans of Harry Potter, so when I ran into one of them on the stairs today, of course the topic ran to old Harry. Seems the latest film has been delayed until spring 2009, which still gives us( my neighbours )time to 'catch up' on all the previous films in HD - thanks for the sale, Amazon! I still find it odd that so many HD-DVD's are still so pricey, even six months after the annoucement that Blu-Ray had won the DVD War in early 2008. Which annoys me still, as Blu-Ray is still quite feature-sparse compared to HD-DVD; being able to pop up a scene menu WHILE still watching a movie is immensely liberating, as were other features of HD-DVD. Again, the Market Has Spoken, not the techs... too bad. My experience has always been that people will buy whatever's cheapest, and learn to live with it - hello, Dollar Stores.

Notice how the links tapered off towards the end, and the last entry had NO links at all? Ta!

Searches, Spaghetti and Satchels

Being weather-sensitive has its ups and downs... so right now, with all the blah weather this week, I am feeling distinctly lacking in energy and verve. Good thing I have a sunlamp!

Oct 6th - Crazy Foreign Folk

Ah, Mondays. When you want to start off the week right...

Today marked the return of Crazy Lady from the UK. Yes, the same one who made my day a living hell back on Aug. 26th returned today to send some money back to the poor bastards who have to admit to knowing her across the pond - maybe they exiled her here? She was relatively restrained today, though regrettably not in a straitjacket. I was sweetness and light while serving her, in hopes of getting the hell out of the branch before her eyes rolled back in her head and the vomit started spewing. Still, she managed to complain that the branch "didn't smell right"( we have an Irish Cafe and a Chinese Restaurant on each side, respectively )as well as trying to start an argument about how... *ahem* Yes, I have to write this: how I had not properly underlined the rate of exchange.. which is a courtesy, as it's plainly printed on her receipt. Valiantly, I stopped myself from rolling my eyes - instead, I simply circled the relevant section and moved to the next customer. Would you believe she stood at the counter for another five minutes, trying to think of something else to complain about, before finally leaving? The man I was serving waited until she had left, then said "If she was any unhappier, the rain would be following her around." I grinned, but said nothing, of course.

One little factoid for you about money transfers: in Italy, getting a telegram is considered by many to be a Bad Omen, as most telegrams are notices that a family member has died. Telling someone you are receiving a wire transfer is MUCH better, as saying "I'm waiting for a telegram" will get you some shocked looks. Unfortunately, I have a feeling this is related to people who think black cats are bad luck... and in Italy, being a black cat is likely to lead to a shortened life, again at the hands of the ignorant. Some more Italian Superstitions can be found here, sans tomato sauce.

Related to that, we have this gallery of people who just don't care about others... when they park. Seems the world is full of folks who couldn't give a crap for their fellow man, or at least not while they are in a hurry to shop before the store / mall / beer store closes.

Oct 7th - Hauling Out the Pack

Ironing. Why, you ask, do clothes still need to be freed of wrinkles, decades after the invention of the Leisure Suit? As you may have guessed, I used part of my day today to catch up on the ironing, and it was not nearly as bad as I thought. There is something soothing about seeing a wrinkled mass of fabric turn into a smooth set of planes demarcated by buttons and seams. Modern fabrics are catchup up though, but still it is a slow road to the elimination of the iron from today's household.

I also went through the storage locker at my parent's place and found a few more 'missing' items, including my beloved Spalding satchel, not to be confused with a rucksack( the German word for backpack )or a messenger bag. This green bag( my fave colour, btw )got me through university and innumerable gaming sessions carrying extra-heavy loads of books, and is still in amazing shape. Now I'll be using it mainly as a laptop bag, which is a form of retirement, I guess... going easy on the satchel after all those years of hard work.

Though... maybe I should have bought a backpack back then, given all the shoulder strain involved. Kids today have it even worse, as this CNN article shows. Which is why I am all for projects like OLPC, which aims to give every child in the world a laptop, which in part would eliminate some of the heavy books toted to and from school. Along the same lines, Better World Books aims to raise social awareness while preventing thousands of books from being wasted - all from the work of two college students. Given the fact that many online book companies are merging, like the merging of local Victoria AbeBooks and Amazon.com, it's good to see smaller independents remaining, well, independent.

Oct 8th - Mad Max Lives!

For some reason Mad Max has been running around in my head this week. Perhaps the dated news that Mad Max 4 is in development, or that I found out that a die-cast version of the Interceptor is now available for fans... who knows? As I have mentioned before, apocalyptic stories, movies and related paraphernalia appeal to me, and the Max Max series of films was always well-realized. Other favourites of mine were the Wasteland game for the venerable AppleIIe, followed by its incomparable( and unofficial )sequel, Fallout. A fairly complete list of such games can be found here, and a great place that compiles all sorts of apocalyptic media is, well, Post-Apocolyptic Media.

An inevitable fallout of the Nuclear Crisis of the Sixties was the fallout shelter. You can read a little about these rad rec rooms at BadFads.com, which also compiles such things as the HackeySack and... the Leisure Suit! I think what I find fascinating about such things is that we can look back with the perspective of years and ask ourselves "What the heck was so great about it?"

Well, cheer up - have a look at an end of the world scenario, with zombies... and Lego!

Oct 9th - Churches That Aren't

Again with the Mad Max today... though it was due to the weather. The cold, actually: it was only five degrees outside whilst cycling to work, and let me tell you, that's not pleasant. Though most of me is fairly well covered, my face isn't, so cold air plus windchill equals a rather rosy nose and cheeks... which have been staying rosy for hours, ouch. So I popped on my smog mask, purchased a few years back for the joyful Smog Days of Summer in St. Catharines, and that seemed to do the trick. Though I looked a lot like one of the bandit drivers from the Mad Max movies, I was in good company: four Olympic cyclists showed up in Beijing last August wearing smog masks.

On a special note: the Church of the Banana v.2 went live, and will be continually improved as time permits. With our massive creative time and powerful drive for success, we should see our traffic double in no time... or within a few months, we hope. Tell your friends!

Some of you may remember back in May of 2005, that the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster was born. Though the Church of the Banana was not sparked from the same kind of debate of Evolution versus Directed Creationism, it can be said that the COTFSM was inspirational in that it still exists today, and inspires others to fight against society's stupider elements, some of them religious, some not. I mention this because I actually SAW a COTFSM 'fish' symbol today on a bumper of a car at a stoplight, and I managed to grab a picture of it. Hilarious! Take that, Jesus Fish... even the Darwin Fish has not the Hilarity Power of the COTFSM!

Oct 10th - Virtually Yours for the Asking

Thinking lately about superheroes, I found a useful site for those who find they have far too many enemies to deal with, and that their secretaries keep getting turned into lime jello by various death rays. Nemester.com is a wondeful place for a hero to compile a list of their dastardly counterparts.

Another site I have not visited for many a year is AskJeeves.com - which seems to be part search engine now, as well as a huge database of answers to questions on many topics. Back in the day, this sort of interactive database was new and shiny; many folk were thrilled just to see an answer pop up to their plain-english question instead of having to parse it word-by-word! Reminds me a little of the hype that surrounded Ananova.com, where a virtual talking head would read out the latest news in a 'realistic' simulation of a newscaster. Stories about how this sort of 'virtual actor' would replace traditional humans sprung up all over, but the tech quickly proved to be far behind the hype. Still, the subject is far from closed, and has ramifications for all of us, famous or not - if there is an image of you somewhere, does it belong to you, or someone else? Just for as long as you are alive, or for all time?

On that note, we jump from talk of virtual actors in LOTR to... Muppets and LOTR. If that appealed to your tastes, this candy version of the Battle For Helm's Deep will appeal even more. Enjoy!

Oct 11th - Searching for Life?

Considering I first heard the phrase "Google it!" from Spider Robinson at Torcon2003, searching the web is something I have managed to develop into a decent skill. Which means basically, that I do not waste too much time DOING my searches, as I arrive at results fairly quickly. For those of us who shudder when we see the phrase "1,450,000 Search Results" Google offers some basic tips. You can also find a more comprehensive guide here - you can amuse yourself by searching these three keywords: French, mlitary, victories ... and seeing how many results pop up.

While searching something local, I found this interesting tidbit from the past. Sixty-nine years ago today, a Victoria woman by the name of Ethel McCall had her story run in the Victoria Times Colonist on October 11th, 1939. It was about the early days of the submarine war from WWII, when the Germans in the early days of the conflict behaved much like their counterparts from more civilized eras. Too bad it degenerated so quickly into the modern mess we all know today.

On searches too: For a few years now I have been running a program called BOINC, which utilizes unused computer time to help with various computing projects around the world. Since I usually leave my PC on, I just let BOINC use it when I don't, to help search for cures to various diseases. I used to run a SETI@Home search program, but that's been doing very well recently. Now that the cool weather has moved in, leaving the PC on all day doesn't run the risk of overheating it, and the warm air really helps to keep my apartment cozy at the same time - I'll likely not turn on my gas fireplace until well into December, given my large south-facing windows and the extra insulation I've added to the walls of the place.

Oct 12th - Tic, Tac, Time

My, how time flies... or gets scribbled on bits of paper. Already the end of another week, and still so much left to do. Though one has to admire folk like Kate Kelton, whose claim to fame is... TicTacs.

Work was interesting today, in that a steady, simple day with just dull rain outside turned unusual at about an hour to closing time. Without warning( is there ever? )a massive power outage hit the Island - over 200,000 homes and businesses were affected, which included most of the South Island and so all of Victoria. It was off for over an hour, which was well past the branch's closing time. Of course, we had the usual brightsparks who peered in the darkened door both before AND after the posted closing times, looking confused. Perhaps they didn't notice the little clue that the WHOLE CITY was blacked out, and that maybe, just maybe, most places of business would NOT be open without power for little things like lights? Sometimes I wonder about how observant the general public is... then days like today confirm my already low opinion.

Though I did get a ride home, so cycling on the darkened streets was not to be...

Dang - I forgot to mention yodeling! Oh well... it's late on Thanksgiving Monday, and I just want to relax for a few hours tonight. More on Turkey Day next week!

Accents, Atlantis and Asprin

Well well well ... another week, another blog! Seems to be quite a few of these here; all the more to catch up on in one's spare time...


Sept 30 - Just Watch Me

YouTube - anything you want to watch, in ten-minute bites. As I've mentioned a few shows in the past in the blog, I thought I would share something different this time: spoofs. For your viewing pleasure, may I present Monty Python's Spamalot from the Holy Grail... done in Lego. Then there's ... Shining, which is a trailer that spoofs The Shining, all done with original clips. For those of you strong in the Farce, there's a never-before-seen clip of Darth Vader being a smartass - I can relate. Lastly, there is the incredibly funny Lemon Demon Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny...

The above video bring to mind old things made new... which of course can easily lead to a cliché. The Cliché Finder Database can help you avoid such things; as a writer I find it invaluable for testing my 'new' ideas to see if they've been done-to-death already. So, you're welcome.

I spent some of my time today outside on a patio at the local Starbuck's, soaking up a lovely sunny afternoon with a soy drink at hand and lots of people parading by. Being able to sit on a patio and not be smoked all over was a breath of fresh air, literally. Much as I espouse equal rights for those who want to commit slow suicide by cancer stick, I do not want to breathe in their chemical clouds from three tables over, thanks... so B.C.'s tough public smoking laws are a boon to patio-goers here.

Oct 1 - You Speak Me?

One of my interests is language; not to get too technical, but the fact that SO many different lanugages have developed on a single planet, among members of a single species, fascinates me. Accents among members of the same lingual family are an offshoot of this interest; this site lets you test what sort of American accent you have in the English language. Then again, you could always learn to speak Klingon or, my favourite: Atlantean!

Speaking of which, I've begun watching Stargate: Atlantis on DVD, which is great for enjoying both the writing and special effects at one's own pace. I've also just this week discovered the Stargate Atlantis Blog, which has tons of inside insights from the creators of the show. Too bad it just got cancelled. :-(

An old man on a bike caused me to experience a Scooby Doo Hallway moment today near my home. He was just another cyclist riding by, albeit on an old bike; not a classic, but likely from the late sixtie's and in questionable shape. He was by and gone in a few seconds as I crossed the street and waited for more traffic... and then he went by me AGAIN, from the SAME direction! I did a double-take, for I had last seen him turning into a driveway just up the street... and as far as I knew, there was no back alley or other laneway beyond. Yet there he was, the same old man with the same spaced-out look on his face, going in the same direction. Another day I am going to look into his route, as I want to reassure myself I did not experience some sort of spatial distortion...

The Church of the Banana project took another big step forward today, which I am glad to see. With a number of talented people working on it feverishly, new and good things are happening - stay tuned!

Oct 2 - Hit Shows

YouTube can give new life to many an underrated show long after it has vanished from TV channels. One such is Duckman, starring the voice of Jason Alexander from Seinfeld TV fame. The writing is sharp, satiricual and scathingly funny, much as many a good show is that gets cancelled too early due to audiences not knowing about it - this episode is a great example. Another show I enjoyed was (brace for the title, it's a doozy) Roughnecks: The Starship Troopers Chronicles, which was an early CGI sci-fi cartoon with some surprisingly mature themes underlying the saturday-morning appearance. Which would explain how the show is developed quite a following despite being off the air for nearly ten years and despite the series ending before all the episodes were completed.

The Hit Counter for this blog reached 400 today, which was a milestone. Since I started the counter in February, it has tracked an average of 50 people per month checking out the blog. Not huge numbers, but it is gratifying to see that people are reading what I write. With a few comments scattered here and there too, for good measure.

One thing I haven't done in the last month is play Civ: Rev at all... seeing as nobody else is playing, getting my civ smacked about by the computer isn't nearly as much fun as attacking a human opponent. I suppose I could find some online gamers to fight, but it's not my thing to take strangers to task unless it's in something like Halo3 or COD4 ... less talking, more shooting, really.

Oct 3 - Smallest Houses

Seems I am stuck working every friday evening this month, which thankfully does not impact my social calendar much - yet. All things considered though, I like working the morning shifts better; there is less a sense of wasting an entire day working when you can be home by late afternoon - lots of time to do other things. Like laundry - apparently someone has discovered yet another amazing new way to do it.

The leaves have started falling from the trees along St. Charles Ave this week, meaning that Fall is inevitably here. It is odd though, seeing so many trees still green, and gardens that will remain in bloom throughout the winter months here - the City has planted pansies in many of the public gardens, so those will be colourful right through and into Spring. Nice thoughts for the chillier months.

Something on my horizon is home ownership - sooner or later, we all put down roots, save for the inveterate travelers among us. One concept I am keeping in the back of my cluttered head is Tumbleweed Homes, which can fit almost anywhere on lots too small for traditional homes. An added advantage, apart from the much lower cost of ownership, is the house can be moved at a later date if necessary - just try that with a 2000sqFt bungalow! Considering the sky-high cost of homes in Victoria in the current market, a small, personal-sized dwelling that isn't a condo has great appeal to me.

Oct 4 - Hey, where did...?

I continue to be impressed by the capabilities of my laptop - yes, it's the geek in me, but I try only to let myself G33k out at home. Really. *ahem* So what has my inner geek grinning? HDMI. Yep, the laptop has an HDMI port... and since it ALSO has a top-notch dedicated video chipset from ATI, I can pop in an HDMI cable and get 1080p - true HD output - from the laptop to my big-screen. Not only that, but the little laptop can use BOTH displays simultaneously... something even the techs at BestBuy said it could NOT do. So stick it, you wannabe-g33ks.. I got it to work with a minimum of electric shocks, soldering and cursing. Boy, does it look good!

I had the day off today, and as always it vanished FAR too quickly. I was out for lunch and about town until well into mid-afternoon... just in time to be REALLY rained on, more rain than I have ever seen in Victoria to date. The expressions on people caught outside without umbrellas were priceless... unfortunately, the sudden shift in air pressure meant my head wanted to explode - again, just like last week. I managed to get some work done in between doses of asprin, with two more articles for Cyberwalker.com nigh completed and more work for the CoTB.

Oct 5 - Sun-daze

Nothing really amazing today, just went to work and back again. The sun peeked out a few times during the day, then vanished again as quickly, but at least the rain held off save for a few drops here and there. People's moods were generally sunny today though, for some reason, despite the weather; something I appreciated given a few other days this week.

Sometimes you really need a good sense of humour, as well as patience. How else would you learn the many ways to shoot elastics at the Guide to Shooting Rubber bands? Seriously, there's just a little TOO much information there. So instead, to put your curousity to bed, there's the Red Button Page. Just try to stay away...

One thing that may knock your mood a-kilter, is this. What are people thinking in the name of fashion? Tattoos, piercings... those things I understand. Even the fad from a few years back for dental jewellery, along with other funny stories from the world of teeth.


Soldiering along towards Christmas we go... no comments last week, so I must be doing something right. Soon enough it will be time for ghouls and ghosts to roam the streets, and I still am not sure what I am doing for Halloween. Maybe I should go as a blog writer... all pale and twitchy?

Luggage, Lunch and Links

The week just sped by... it's suddenly Sunday evening, and Blog Time!

Sept 22 - SciFi

I ran across several sites today worth noting, at least if you like SF/F. If not, scroll down...

So, for those of you still with me, here are a few gems: The first is The SF Site, where you can find more on SF than most anyone can read up on in years. Of course there is always SciFi.com, where you can find all the latest media SciFi info. Then there's the bad SciFi, which you can now buy on DVD from Amazon - Harlan Ellision must be gnashing his teeth with this news of an upcoming DVD release.

Some folk manage to combine hobbies and SF in fascinating ways. Take this fellow for example; his woodworking skills have caught the eye of notables such as Stephen Hawking! But if you want hobbies, have a look at my friend Bob's blog, Ruined Niagara... he's got an amazing photographer's eye!

A little note for my no-cable thread: there is Fancast.com, a site which lists full episodes of TV as well as movies for watching... free! They do not have a complete database by any means, but you are almost certain to find a few things you'd like to watch,

Sept 23 - Need a favour?

I sat outside on a patio this afternoon, which was bright and sunny - for a few minutes. I was at the Starbuck's at the Bay Center, which has a great outdoor raised patio, perfect for watching the busy traffic pass by on the street. Pedestrians and cars alike wander past at slower speeds, with many a rubbernecker taking in the sights. I can attest that there were quite a few things worth looking at too; the sunshine seems to bring out the beauties, or at least so it seems to me. A surprising percentage of them seem welded to their cell phones, which does not bode well for phone radiation dosages...

While I was cogitating on the scenery and enjoying the remaining sunshine, a website I had visited years ago popped into my brain again. Curious, I typed in a close analogue of the name... and lo, there it was: FavorVille.com. Imagine a website where you can post your needs, or your offerings, to your community... to connect favours with those who need them. Simple, yet the idea of neighbour helping neighbour seems to have been forgotten in the last few decades... I blame it on several things, including the shift from cozy suburbs with front porches to locked doors in apartment buildings with only a door number to differentiate one dwelling from another. When was the last time you went to borrow a cup of sugar from your neighbour? Or they from you? Some things should never have been let dwindle... or be changed for the worse.

Sept 24 - Movies

I realized today that I have not been out to see a movie at a theater since I arrived in Victoria... and for some time before I left, for that matter. I think it is mainly because I dislike having to share my enjoyment of new entertainment with the general public, who by and large are not nearly as respectful of each other as I am of them. Cell phones, crinkly wrappers of food snuck into the theater, heads in my line of sight... there are many distractions to the 'theater experience' that I can do without. Especially the idiots with cell phones, who simply cannot turn them OFF. *ahem* In any case, I much prefer to wait and see movies in my own 'theatre' setup... which is good enough to really enjoy the experience - how many theaters have a fridge at hand, and will pause the movie when nature calls?

Looking forward to upcoming movie releases, I can honestly say the only ones I am interested in are ones like Transformers2, Venom and yes, Wolverine. There's even a prequel in the works for I Am Legend, which would feed my need for post-apocalyptic films quite nicely, thank you - the release of Death Race 2008 on DVD may entice me to pick it up, being a Car Wars fan of long standing. I have no desire to see the badly-titled new Bond film 'Quantum Solace' ... sounds like a documentary on the Large Hadron Collider that's sparked such an unneeded internet-fueled debate about the end of the world. It's just science, people.

Sept 25 - Exercise Plans

Outdoor activities for me in Victoria have been limited to my riding my bike around the city; sad, but that's what happens when everyone's so darn busy. I'd like to try activities such as kayaking, or even hiking a nearby trail. Since I've recently found out the waiting list for gallstone surgery will be up to 18 months, I can start my plans to get into shape now, so I'll have a shorter recovery time from the operation - which itself is not as massively invasive as in years past. So it looks like I will be cracking out the exercise guides, shopping for some free-weights and eying a gym membership with necessary distaste. I'd prefer to avoid the gym altogether, as I begrudge the time spent to get there and back; I could be doing other things. Still, we'll see what I can find that's decent within riding distance.

I still have not found a local (or Canadian, for that matter) vendor for the X-Wing Kite. Sadly, I will likely forego looking for it until the spring, as the cool factor will be severely diminished if one is flying it on cold, cloudy days by the ocean side. Joggers and dog-walkers wrapped in many layers might find a kite-flying amusing, if out of place, in the cold winter months here in Victoria.

Sept 26 - Cheap Cooking and Cars

I discovered a cook today after my own heart, one whose menus are 100% influenced by their cost: the 99-cent Chef. Yes, that's right: this chef only uses ingredients that list for 99cents or less... and he doesn't use expire-the-next-day items either. Some of his receipies are really good, and have inspired me to shop with a new viewpoint, somewhat similar to the "Shop the Perimeter" theory of grocery-store purchases; by staying OUT of the center of the store, you avoid all the high-ticket low-nutrition items that the store wants to sell you to boost their profits and lower your life expectancy.

Time to leave for work came too quickly today, just as the weather changed - again. Sunshine mocked me for a few hours until clouds rolled in suddenly in the late afternoon; amazing how the changes happen so quickly here. I did amuse myself during the inevitable lulls with some arts and crafts at work - yes, a pair of scissors cut a swath through some paper cars as part of an internal contest we're having. I found a whole bunch of great car designs at Papercars.net, all printable, as well as other printable items at this site. There was even a great site devoted to one of the many Hanna-Barbera cartoons, the Wacky Racers - you can download printable designs at this site, though be warned they will take quite a bit of time to build.

Sept 27 - Inventions and Lunch

I've had quite a few ideas over the years for new (and sometimes even useful!) inventions. One such was my idea for a GPS luggage-tracking system, way back in the 90's when cell phones were just coming into general use. I envisioned a tracker that would lock onto local cell towers, wherever it was in the world, to determine its postion and then send a txt msg with the lattitude and longitude of its position, Imagine: much like the VISA commercial where a remote pops out wheels on some lost luggage and zooms it across the world to its owner, this would enable one to locate luggage anywhere.

Unfortunately, someone has already created the device of my fervent imagination. The folks at MicroTrakGPS have developed a device that does just what I mentioned above, and is even halfway affordable. I have thought of several refinements though, that would make it more airline-friendly... nobody wants a GPS activating at 30,000 feet to cheerfully cause interference with a jet's controls. Unlikely, but you don't want to take that risk.

I had lunch today at the Oak Bay Marina Restaurant with my parents, which was a very pleasant culinary and visual experience. The restaurant is circular, with a commanding view of the marina and the bay itself though floor-to-ceiling windows. We were seated in a curved booth in the middle of the restaurant's inner circle, whose elevated height swept our eyes across the other diners to the vista beyond; the sunny skies made the view a spectacular one. The food was excellent as well; I had the Chef's Special, which was a seared sole fillet with tomatoes, potatoes and goat's cheese. The taste was subtle and varied, depending on how one combined the cheese with the other elements. Expensive though, as expected, but a treat nonetheless.

Afterward, I trotted down to the Cook St. Village Starbuck's and spent a pleasant few hours on the patio outside, which I discovered has a heating system akin to that of the Kilt's in Port Dalhousie. Winters at Steebs are on the schedule now, especially given the mild climate here. I was amused by dozens of Green Party supporters canvassing the Village as well; many people stopped to chat with them, all of them friendly, which again jut blows my mind... where else would you see people HAPPY to slow their cars down to shout encouragement, or even pull over to talk? The weather likely helps, as everyone loves a sunny weekend. Sadly, I forgot half of the power ensemble for my laptop, so my work was cut short by a flashing power warning... but the sun still shone, regardless.

The rest of the evening blurred, as I fought off a migraine whilst getting caught up on various neglected tasks around the homestead. Tidying turned out to be its own reward: I finally located my long-lost Futurama DVD's! Seasons 1-4 had vanished in the move, and I had feared they had been stolen along with my Olympus camera by those charming thieves at Multicities Moving.

Sept 28 - Ancient Internet

Way, way, WAY back in the day, in the heady days of 1994 when the Internet was just a few hundred machines linked together by string and tin cans, the Cool Site Of The Day debuted. Racking up an electic mix of sites offered, yes, daily, the CSOTD continues to THIS day to be a great browse. Surprisingly, some of the sites listed from back in the early 90's are still online, including the Lurker's Guide to B5, as well as the Mystical Head of Bob. One of the first dozen sites listed was.... the CIA main site. People STILL wonder if back then the CIA logged and investigated each hit on their site... despite the occasional hack attempt, they may still be doing so.

Along with that, may I present: The Acronym Generator! No longer do you need to struggle to come up with an appropriate acronym for your world-dominating organization - the AG does it for you! Before l33t-speak, acronyms were quite common in internet chat rooms, where slow typists would make up for their lack in, er, speed... with phrases like the ubiquitous LOL, UR2COOL and GMAFB.

A working sunday... so I sleep in and get home in time for dinner - not a bad deal overall. I suppose I won't be going on any tours of Victoria's interesting places in the next month, unless I am able to wrangle a free Saturday to nab a vehicle. Touring on bicycle is only good in the good weather; something about being rained on takes some of the shine off being a tourist, though in Niagara Falls that just meant you were standing too close to the Gorge.


Well, that about sums things up, for now. I have a few vacation days coming up before the end of the year, so I will be madly sorting through my photos and updating my blog, finally. There's just so many, I have to just finish searching while comparing them to each blog entry... but since ImageShack seems to be doing the trick, I can include photos more easily in the future - if I manage to take any good ones, that is.

Planes, Pirates and Peanut Butter

The weather this week was rather blah for the most part. I went from grey skies in ON to grey skies in BC... but the sun popped out as usual on the weekends to mock me. Nice to know some things don't change, despite being in another province 3500km away...

Sept 16 - Going Rogue

Whew! I slept in today until 11am - guess I needed it. Spent a lot of the day running around getting groceries and the like. Nice to have a car only when you need it - saves parking and repairs - thanks to the folks, such is my case. I even splurged on a new backpack from Targus, though the price made me cringe as usual - necessary though, as my other bags cannot safely carry the laptop and are falling apart besides. The thing has more pockets than the other two bags combined though, as well as many other features that make it (almost)worth the price, in all.

I logged a little while of gaming in COD4 with Dave tonight, and did surprisingly well. I seem to have found a combination of 'perks' and weapons that keep me alive long enough to claim a fair portion of team kills, which I find very gratifying. The Xbox360's controller is STILL nowhere near as accurate as a PC mouse and keyboard, but then that also means the OTHER guy is less accurate too - there's far too many headshots as it is!

One thing I also installed on the new rig is Rogue Trooper, a game based on the old 2000 A.D. comic strip that had some of the best storytelling I have seen... well, I read the Heavy Metal:War Machine issue with it in it (and stupidly loaned it to someone who lost it)so that's close enough. Authors like David Drake and Joe Haldeman are ones whose work I read avidly, as they both had brief-but-intense stints in the military that shape the course of their work even decades later. In some ways, I am quite glad that I do not live in a country where conscription is a fact of life, but when one reads about the camaraderie forged among those who have seen battle, the wise know that this is something that no other bond in the world can compare to... and also for which no other bond carries so high a price.

Sept 17 - Foul for the Environment

Back to work today for an evening shift, after my all-too-brief and all-too-busy (but in a good way) vacation last week. I am not one for long vacations, but even this one seemed just a little too short - I am used to at least a few days of total relaxation, but I suppose I can still do that; with the number of vacation days I have banked, I HAVE to take some 3 and 4 day weekends in the next few months. I hope to get a lot accomplished / caught up on those weekends... but if I do, does that not negate the fact that they are 'vacation' weekends? Again, irony raises its voice in laughter.

A strange thing: There is NO Drive Clean program here in B.C. as strange as that sounds. Cars belching copious clouds of black exhaust are far more common here than in Ontario. Which annoys the crap out of me on a personal level, as I have to suck in their fumes while climbing the hill to work every day - there's always at least one beater chugging up the hill next to me, making me stop to gasp for fresh air in a driveway or side street. It's amazing that the air can be so fresh one moment, then swimming with fumes and the stench of unburned hydrocarbons. For a province that claims the high ground in so many environmental fields, this is a glaring omission.

Sept 18 - Costumes

Halloween is coming up, and I am not sure what to do this year. I never seem to get around to costume design in time for the 31st each October, though many a great idea has stayed lodged in my head. Certainly I could shop for some great Halo3 costumes here, or even try for a matching set.

One of my friends is in the 501st Legion, a respected and well-established Star Wars costuming club. They're so popular, they have often provided security at many a convention, which of course is a sight to see - nothing like a squad of stormtroopers to settle disputes peacefully... The reason I mention this is that I recently recalled that the 2008 Canadian Action Figure Expo is coming up. I attended the 2007 show with Mike H. to sell off most of my beloved toys of years past in preparation for the move out to BC. Amazingly, someone with a camera managed to document almost every vendor present - my stuff (the table with the tall white shelf) is shown here and here, plus you can see a few shots of the 501st members who attended, including a female Royal Guard.

Which brings up the subject of female Stormtroopers, whose outfits although pleasing to the eye are somewhat impractical for battle. Heck, you can get into such topics as chainmail bikinis, female fantasy armour (or the lack therof) with some great recreations here, as well as the many stereotypes that abound in fantasy and fiction regarding barbarians and the like. One of my favourite series on the topic is the 'Chicks in Chainmail' series edited by Esther M. Friesner which has its authors exploring the many, er, cracks in the genre regarding women's stereotypes. She writes about the latest book in the series here. Of course, you could just take matters into your own hands about stereotypes, such as in comics...

Sept 19 - Pirates, yahar!

Today is International Talk Like A Pirate Day, which has several of my neighbours excited - they're big pirate fans, and I can guess fairly accurately what they're dressing up as this year. There is the Official Site, the Bus Pirates site, How To Talk Like A Pirate and even some Pirate Fonts to turn your PC into a buccaneer sailing the strange silicon seas of the internet. Plus a few more sites where you can spend yer gold on pirate booty and swag. Reminds me a little of BucCONeer'98, the World SciFi convention I attended in 1998 in Boston, whose theme (as the name implies)was piratical. Boston and pirates seemed to go well together.

One of my favourite pirates of all time is Captain Capacitor, which is odd as he is both fictional AND a CGI animated character... but that perhaps, is why I like him best. As I mentioned in an earlier blog, he was voiced by Long John Landry, whose salty tones did much to sell ol' Gavin.

Sept 20 - Don't Miss the BoobTube

It's been two months now with no TV, and I have to say I am more productive for it. It's no effort at all to pop in a DVD of my favourite series, or find something on YouTube that I've not seen in a while - despite the 10-minute limit, which is annoying for a 42-minute show, I'll grant you. One of these days I will get around to uploading ALL of my DVD's to my PC, but that will have to wait for a) the time it takes (2hrs per DVD on average) as well as b) the storage space - I figure I will beed about 5 Terabytes of storage, which is well beyond both my current finances and current tech on the market... but the gap is closing. I can recall when 1 gigabyte drives were 'too big to fill' even when installing ALL one's games, pictures and a few videos. Look for far we've come along since!

I was wiped when I got home from work, so much so that even dinner seemed a daunting task. Luck for me the microwave was invented, or I'd have had to resort to a PBJ - it's Peanut Butter Jelly time!

This week I also managed to get NWN to run on my new laptop, which was no mean feat in and of itself - Vista64 is NOT friendly to older programs, and since NWN dates waaaay back from 2002, I had little hope. Success put a smile on my face though, as now I can run the game on hot days without worrying about frying my main PC, which gets VERY toasty with no A/C nearby - I miss my office at The Prince, where I had an A/C vent pointed right at the back of the PC desk...

Sept 21 - Planes and Mechs

The Snowbirds are putting on a show today down by Dallas Rd, where nearly 25,000 people are expected to attend. Unfortunately, I am stuck working today, which I find manifestly unfair... I love seeing aerial acrobatics, and attending airshows has always been a highlight of any given year. At least I managed to catch a glimpse of one plane through a gap in the buildings to the south - sweet!

One thing I would love to do is attend Air Combat USA, where one can fly prop-driven aircraft in mock combat, complete with lasers and smoke dispensers to simulate hits. I have always liked flight simulators, so much so that I purchased one mother of a controller back in the day to play Tie Fighter - one of the greatest space combat sims ever created, for any platform. Though I did not do so well at things like Microsoft Flight Simulator, one of these days I will sit down and really learn how to fly... or at least how to avoid the ground for a good long time. Same thing, right?

This reminds me of the old Battletech Center which was located in the CN Tower in Toronto years back. This was a 'virtual world' of 16 linked 'battlepods' which simulated the interior and control layout of mechs from the Battletech universe. Each pod was linked in a network( pretty high tech stuff 15 years ago )where up to 8 players at a time could battle each other in tactical combat using the latest graphics at the time - pretty dull by today's standards, but it beat the heck out of the Nintendo64 at the time. As I recall, the whole setup was running on a Mac Quadra, which was incredibly funny to see; all these huge battlepods linked to a tiny Mac sitting in a corner that spat printouts from an old HP inkjet. The future meets the Mac - sounds like a commercial, actually!


I am using a Blog editor called ScribeFire this week, in the hopes that it will cure the annoyances that have drawn out each entry for FAR longer than it should take to enter some simple text. One thing it has done already is making links a LOT easier to enter, hence the link-heavy blog this week.

Niagara Trip 2008

Prepare yourself… I had a bit more free time this week, while on vacation. Which means I managed to pack a LOT more into the blog – a lot more happened too, so there’s balance! To help out, I have highlighted the wedding-related entries in blue text.

Sept 8 - The Saga Begins

My first day of vacation, finally! I made a nice relaxed breakfast( with turkey bacon of course! )and just tried to chill for a few hours to unwind from the long weekend.

The day was spent packing, on and off, as I dug things out of corners and cupboards to make a tidy pile for stuffing into luggage later. I took a break in the late afternoon, forced to do so by work - was there any surprise?

I was dropped off at the airport in plenty of time, a little after 9pm. I checked in at Sunwing, remembering only AFTER I had parted with my luggage that I was supposed to lock it. Oops. So I spent over an hour worrying about it, then forgot to worry as I sipped on a Tazo Chai latte, courtesy of the nice lady who opened up the sole Starbucks counter early just for me – I love B.C. folks more and more. I was so relaxed that I almost forgot that I had not yet passed through Security, so at 11:30pm I snapped out of my torpor and trundled to the checkpoint to partially disrobe in the hopes that flashing detector lights would not point out my ignorance of change in my pockets – didn’t happen, I was happy. Then only a few minutes waiting in the Departure Lounge before boarding, almost on time. It was amusing to watch the other passengers in various states of semi-consciousness, considering that I was rather stoked on caffeine which I never drink after 6pm, just because it keeps me up far after midnight if I do.

I was sandwiched into the window seat, per my request… forgetting yet again the law of averages. My two seatmates were a lovely, quiet older couple… who were quite disabled in terms of mobility. So, I was trapped in my seat the entire flight, as the man took at least ten minutes to work up to the effort of hauling himself from his seat – he was unable to do up his belt without help too, for that matter. Nice and quiet the entire flight too, I have to say. I was especially pleased to see that the only crying baby on the flight was far to the back, barely in earshot – I would have knelt to give thanks right then, but the fold-down tray blocked my attempts.

The short hop from Victoria to the Vancouver stop was barely an eye blink, and reminded yet again that ALL of my flights to and from B.C. have been in the dark – I have yet to see my new home or the surrounding area in daylight. Odd, but there it is… Vancouver was a sea of lights, spread out light jewels in the perfect night that glowed with the yellow and cold white of the sulfur and sodium streetlights. I was amazed at the clarity of the night: no clouds marred the tiny perfection of the scenes spreading out below as I arrived and left a city I had yet to set foot in – the mountains and waterways were of course invisible to me, sadly. Maybe another time.

Sept 9 - Back In Niagara

We were in the air again shortly after 1:30am PST, at which point I set my watch forward 3 hours to EST. I managed a few hours sleep from 5am to 7am EST, then was gently elbowed awake by my seatmate in time for breakfast – I chose the poached eggs over the waffles, as syrup and I have always had a messy history, especially in close quarters. Delicious too – who would have thought that a hot breakfast would have been part of such a low ticket price I paid?

The flight landed on time, and the shuffling horde made it out of the plane in decent order… except for me, as I was still trapped next to the nice-but-motively-challenged couple. The gentleman eventually managed to haul himself out of his sea far enough to let his wife and I pass, which was great as I had not planned on spending my first half-hour back in Ontario trapped in an airplane seat. The baggage claim was much faster, as I managed to be one of the first people to grab n’go – there's a first time for everything, I guess, and some balance too.

The airport shuttle was another matter; since Enterprise was off-site, I had to find their shuttle pickup spot… which turned out to be as herculean a task as snapping a picture of both Bigfoot and Jimmy Hoffa together. After taking a pedestrian tour of the entire Pearson Parking Garage’s lower level without spotting any sign of an Enterprise shuttle( heh, Star Trek… )I relented and called them for further clarification. Turns out that the ‘designated pickup point’ was an unmarked, glass and grey-panel bus stop in the furthest corner of the garage, with NO arrows, signs or other markings leading to it or on it. Intuitive, I guess, for the psychics among us. In any case, I walked all the way BACK there, and All Was Well. The trip to St. Catharines was uneventful too, with the sun shining and traffic flowing like a sparkling steel river along the QEW as I left T.O. at 10:30am. Though I do not miss travelling on the QEW, I do recall with fondness many a trip to the Eaton Centre as a kid - a trip to the Big City was always exciting.

I rolled into St. Catharines before noon, going straight to Rene’s where the trooper had stayed up from his night shift to greet me and make sure I arrived all right – thanks, bud. I settled myself in, then headed out to make a few stops.

Barely an hour in town, and I got a call from Shawna asking about how to fix her computer… see any patterns here? Turns out it just needed a dusting, easy to diagnose over the phone. Simple fixes; love that.

I stopped in at The Prince early in the day, to say hello to the Supers there. They were surprised to see me but very pleased nonetheless, so we spent a little while catching up in the office. I have to say the place looked great, with numerous cosmetic upgrades that added touches of class to the building. Great folk.

On my way to the Falls to get measured for the first tux of my life, I stopped first at the Welland Ave M.Mart to say hello to the girls. As I pulled up to park, a stylish and shiny black car zoomed into the spot next to me. With visions of Yakuza gunmen, I warily exited my car… to be greeted with a squeal of “Peter!” – it was Katie! Apparently she had spotted me turning into the lot, recognizing me despite a goatee, a rental car and not seeing me for nearly a year. We chatted for a bit, delighted to have run into each other so soon, and I had a look at tiny Annabella in the back, asleep… much as I felt I needed soon, having got 2 hours in the last 30 myself. That car seat looked awfully comfortable in the shady sunlight – lucky kid.

The tux measuring in the Falls went well, with the clerk commenting that the measurements I had sent in( that I had don myself )would have better suited a skinny gorilla than a human being. I agreed, and asked if he had ever measured a gorilla – we both got a laugh over that.

Once I was back from my measuring, I settled into my room – the air bed was comfortable, but had an odd tilt to the left. After a nap of a few hours, I had dinner with Matt L. and his wife Suzette at their place on Roehampton, only a few doors down from my old haunt at The Prince. It was a great dinner( thanks guys! )and we all had a blast in each other’s company.

I arrived at the Kilt a little after 8pm; Brian was already there. Amazingly, within a short period of time many people showed up: Dan, Mike, Pierre, Al… even John and his new beau Amber. We took over two booths under the projector screen and had a blast until midnight – I was touched that so many had come out just to see me on my first night in town, even with the ‘official’ Kilt night being Wed.

Sept 10 - Lunch, and Kiltage

Well, I wanted to sleep in today, and I did - with a vengeance. I hit the hay last night around 2:30am, which with the time difference was an early 11:30pm for me PST. I woke when Rene rolled in from work around 7:30am, then went back to sleep for what I thought was a few hours... But the clock read 11am when I finally opened my eyes!

Both Rene and I went to meet Tim at Coppola's for lunch, very conveniently located at a 2 minute walk on Carlton Ave. My old school-mate Luigi runs the place, and I have only heard good things - today's lunch did not disappoint either! A chicken club on foccacia was delicious with a a Caesar salad, and the other guys were both ecstatic about their meals. The waiter was very attentive, refilling drinks before being asked and amazingly, spotting that I hailed from B.C. - without being told! He said it was my happy and relaxed attitude... something that I apparently picked up after leaving ON. Without trying, I might add.

I was at the Kilt again for 6pm, and again Brian was there soon after – I envy him the ability to make his own hours, as I hope to do so for my own career sooner rather than later. Working for The Man stinks, most days.

People. TONS of people. Almost everyone I had sent an email to arrived tonight. Brian, Lucas, Shawna, Nigel, Katie, Dan, Simon, Matt L. plus the M.Mart girls: Rose, Tyra, Jackie, Ashley and her friend Amanda. The most lovely surprise was seeing Jen again, who has taken the plunge into real estate after leaving M.Mart a few years ago to get married, among other things. Being an idiot, I forgot to post my Itinerary to F.Book, but Jen figured it out anyway... smart, smart girl, she is.

Honest Frankie was playing tonight, and we caught up in between sets – it was great to see and hear him perform again live – a bit of Niagara I had missed greatly in B.C.

Sept 11 - Emotional Gifts

It is strange being a tourist in my old home town. In many ways, it feels as though I have never actually left – all the major bones are there, the trees, the views, all that. Yet surgery is underway on the QEW, quite a few other small changes are taking place across the city as well. Some stores are closed, new ones open... the streets are still crowded at the usual bottlenecks.
Plus, it feels DRY here – not the humidity, that’s much the same soupy-feeling air. No, after the lush foliage of B.C., even the thousands of trees I see fall short of the riotous splendor that fills Victoria from end to end with a million shades of green and all the colours in between. At least the weather for these two days has been beautifully sunny, though the forecast for the weekend is sadly for showers… such is the luck of weddings this time of year. Though considering the wet summer they have had in Niagara so far, it may not have mattered much this year anyway.

Part of my day was spent dithering, about spending. For some time now, my home PC has been hampering my work efficiency, as its relative antiquity means I can perform only a few tasks at a time and other things take far too long overall as it is. So, I have been debating getting a new PC, though the expense has had me balked for the last long while – after all, I am a master at making my current stuff stretch to avoid expensive upgrades. The Blue Frankenstein currently has parts from six different computers in it, and has served me well... but its time has passed.

But, today I fell in love… well, had my jaw drop anyway. Over at Best Buy, my eye was caught by a snazzy Gateway laptop - there is a favourable review of it here. Now, I am the last one to say “I need a laptop” as it usually means a compromise, AND a whack to the wallet but this thing had my number – it could do everything I wanted it to for getting my work done more efficiently, not to mention being about ten times faster AND smaller than my current PC. Heck, its portable – meaning I can do my work anywhere, much as I had been doing with my PDA to get blog ideas down… and then fighting to transfer them to my PC without enabling all sorts of errors( see previous blogs for that ). The clincher in the deal today? I could walk out the door with this beautiful machine, for a price that had me blinking in shock, and not pay anything, not even interest, for a whole year. I was sold, so was the laptop, and I cheered. Then I felt an awful twinge of phantom pain near my wallet, so I limped to the car, still grinning like a fool.

I also shopped again for a wedding gift today, but was hampered by the fact that all of the gifts at The Bay were already purchased from the Registry there. I did not find anything I liked at the Pen, but like an idiot I did not check Sears to see if they were registered there as well – I found out on the wedding day that there were, so I could have saved myself some searching. Ah well… not like I do a lot of weddings, but I will chalk this one up to ‘learn for Next Time, dork.’
I picked up my tux in the late afternoon, at Caswell’s in the Falls. It was amazing; I felt like an ad spokesman for Gary Waters when I looked into the mirror after the fitting was done. I expected to look like the classic ‘penguin’ tux wearer: a lot of black, some white, and lots of shiny. Instead, an elegantly-trimmed man stared back at me, done up to the nines as though for the Oscars. Wow!

I had dinner at my aunt’s in the Falls shortly after, where we spent a lot of great hours reminiscing about the family history. There is a lot of history at that house in particular, where most of our italian family gatherings have been held: birthdays, Easter, Christmas, etc... dozens of times in my life that place has been packed to the gills. Especially the couches after dinner, where all the older uncles snoozed after the heavy feasting.

What I loved best though, was going through my grandfather’s poetry, the works that he had written to my grandmother during their courtship and other pieces too. They have both since passed on, with his death shortly before my birth in 1973. I was stunned to see so many similarities in our writing styles: the same unconscious choice of verse and measure to the poems we both wrote, much as my own father wrote poetry to my mother – and still does. Even our handwriting was similar in many ways, down to the little quirk of running out of room at a line’s end and cramming the words in as catch can. A bold hand, looping and sacrificing refinement for speed to keep up with our thoughts. Again, I felt saddened that I never had the opportunity to meet this wonderful man, my namesake, who must have posessed many of the qualities I value in myself today. That lack is one of the very few things I regret in my life, and his.

As I left the dinner, I noticed that the two gas stations on Thorold Stone Rd & Montrose were lined up. Luckily, two motorcyclists were talking next to me at the light, and I overheard how gas was predicted to spike thanks to Ike( heh, it rhymes! )tomorrow. So I pulled in and filled up, next to a guy with an SUV who was complaining loudly about the cost at $1.25 cents. So I cheerily explained that gas in B.C. was up to $1.45, so that snapped his mouth shut in a hurry. The cyclists were right too; gas went up to $1.38 the next day… which stinks, because after this trip is over I will have had to put an entire tank into the rental – but at least it was cheaper tonight to fill.

Later that night I went to Faith and Pierre’s place, where I met Mike’s girlfriend Lisa, who was still nice to me despite being warned by Mike – she seems VERY nice. Dan was there, as was Brian, and a chocolate fountain. After some herculean efforts, the chocolate began to flow, to the delight of all who dipped various fruits and confections into its sweet dark drippings. Talk turned to tech, of course, including discussion of putting up the website they had all created for my birthday a few months ago. As well, Pierre pointed out a great, inexpensive quality microphone that I can use for my voice acting work – since I have a nice, quiet laptop now to work with, I should be able to create MUCH better recordings than with my loud 12-fan Blue Frankenstein PC.

Sept 12th - Retro Games Night

Rene had kindly made enough breakfast for two, so I dined on a splendid omlette that really got the day off to a good start. Room service with a smile! Thanks!
I headed out ‘early’ today; well, early for me, as the 9am start here was still 6am for me PST. I went straight to the pen Centre, determined to get a worthy gift for the wedding and still not deterred by the fact that the tiny Registry had been 99% bought up already. After some searching, I found a multitude of perfect related gifts and had them wrapped together at the Customer Service desk, where the nice lady commented mine was the heaviest gift she had ever wrapped… but that her expertise was such that she never once had to lift or flip it. She deserved the tip, as that was one HEAVY box, I tell you… and I hope, HOPE that the newlyweds can make use of the items. You never know...

I had lunch at Café Amore with some relatives, which turned into a have-to-go-now-its-3pm visit – nice, but I did not want to overstay my welcome, much as I love them all.

It was raining spiritedly on the way to the Falls as it is wont to do in Niagara. Unlike Victoria, whose rain is almost apologetic in how it falls gently then vanishes, rain here in Ontario is like that neighbour next door who likes his wrestling on TV: loud, annoying, and lasts FAR too long.

It must say as well that I am less than impressed with my rental car, a Pontiac G5 – the Info button on the steering wheel tells me that I am averaging 8.8L per 100 km… which is sad. It’s a nice little car, but I have been watching the gas gauge drain with something akin to horror, given the current gas prices. By the time I return to T.O. I think I will have to put another half-tank into it, which is frustrating compared to my old ’94 GrandAm’s gas-sipping ways.

The Guys Games Night was a blast. Jason had printed off some old arcade game cabinet shapes, complete with art that we cut out laboriously with scissors… and did not end up using due to a lack of solid posterboard backing. Ah well. My Galaga score came close to beating Jason’s three times, but I gave up as I developed a habit of reaching for a nearby raid can as the pressure mounted in the endgames. We switched instead to Forgotten Worlds, another old Capcom game that I had missed with a vengeance – Jason and I made it through to the end, which elicited much cheering on my part – it made up for my utterly hopeless attempts at conquering Ghosts and Goblins, which remains to this day one of the trickiest arcade games one can try to master.

A brief interlude had me trying out the Nintendo Wii in a few games of tennis, where I have to say I was impressed with the ease with which one can ‘jump into’ the game with the Wii’s motion-sensitive controller. Slamming a backhand to spin a ball just inside the line, far out of reach of your opponent is a thrill when you DO it, not just slapping some buttons and moving a joystick. Cool!

I also hooked up my laptop to the LCD projector during the break and played a few videos: Kiss a Wookie, Star Wars Hands, and a few others too.

We ended the night with a three-person adventure in Gauntlet II, where I cracked up the other guys with my dead-on impression of the ‘game voice’ saying things wholly inappropriate to the game… “Wizard needs food, badly!” We played until we were cross-eyed, and called it a night.

Sept 13th - Rain and Rehearsal

Breakfast today was at the Sunrise Café on Bunting Rd. Brian was there of course, as was Scotty – great to see him, as I had not seen much of him in the last few years. We used to hang out downtown at the Celtic Knot, before it became The Office – their Meat Pie Special was an amazing deal and always tasted great with a ton of hot gravy on the fries. Not that I would be able to eat it anymore, but some good times, especially one time at New Years… ah well. I ended up taking a tour of Scott’s place to see all the renovations he has done – it looks great, and of course it eats up all his spare time… which is just Scotty SOP, as usual. Ah, homeowners…
I was in the Falls before 4pm to help out with some of the final things for the wedding, including neat fans – this involved stylish fake leaves, ribbons and lovely paper cardstock that somehow combined into a tasteful and functional gift for the wedding guests. Combine that with a bottle of spring water each, and they were set for the hot weather tomorrow. Good planning, K2K’s !

Around 5pm all of us, the wedding party and family, went for a convoy drive out to Jordan for the rehearsal, as well as to familiarize ourselves with the route and destination too. Turns out that the Cave Springs Vineyard is on the very same road as Camp Cave Springs, where my entire Grade Eight class went for a few days in late spring. Memories of green hair, arrows fired straight up into the air and firelight tales of horror made me grin – too bad my camera was back at Rene’s or I’d have snapped a few images for the album.

Everything looked great, though the raining grey skies were ominous above the gentle green rows of vines all around. It was very quiet and peaceful… too quiet as it turns out, for the CSV folks had forgotten to open the reception hall for us to practice in. A phone call soon had that sorted out, and we all went in out of the rain to toss umbrellas into a large dripping corner pile.
Rehearsal went well, as things were fairly simple. I only had to worry about seating the guests and looking pretty, both of which should not be mutually exclusive. There was room for all.
We were done dinner before 9, and I was heading back to St. Catharines before 10pm. I met up with Lori, Brian and Rene at the same Ontario St. Timmy’s, where we jawed until well after midnight. I was pleased to see Lori doing so well; her new high-tech pump seems to be doing her a world of good.

Sept 14th - Wedding Day!
After a somewhat fitful sleep( a little too warm, actually )the hour was but 8am( 5am PST )when I broke from my slumber to get a rush on the day. I was ready and in the car by 9:15am on the way to the Falls, all my gear in a travel bag and my tux hanging smartly in the back. After changing at Jason’s mom’s place, I followed him up to Jordan, where we parked in the very smart lot of the Inn On The Twenty and then boarded the limo. By sheer co-incidence, the driver of the other limo, a Rolls-Royce, was none other than my former high-school principal! We caught up briefly after the ceremony... small world.

Amazingly, on the way to the vineyard the weather cleared! It was humid as a rainforest, but the skies were blue and the sun shone down clear on the gathering shortly before noon. Wisely, the decision had been made last night for an indoor ceremony, and that kept us out of the mud in mid-vineyard today. A constant, heavy breeze cooled everyone inside the building, though it meant that we had to pile rocks from a nearby drain to keep the tent outside from leaving on its own!

The ceremony itself was beautiful. Myself and the best man Bob led the bride’s mother up, followed by the bridesmaids, including several cherubic young flower girls who also brought up the rings to give to the two mothers. Then the bride was led to the altar by her father and given away, all the while among rapt attention of the crowd. Did I mention that most of the musical tracks playing for the wedding were Enya? THAT made me grin… seems I am not the only one who finds her work tugs at the emotions, as well as helping one to relax in such a stressful world.
Jason only managed to get halfway through his vows before he started misting up from the emotion, but he soldiered on and kept steady to the end. Ruth did not waver, but they were both very emotional yet hung on to retain composure before having to face towards the gathering. The minister was very good, keeping things going smoothly and helped by both a palpable yet gentle presence and a carrying voice. Ruth looked lovely in her dress, smiling radiantly after despairing last night that it would be a dull and grey wedding day. Jason looked happy too, grinning from ear to ear, though he too was suffering in the torturous personal sweat-suit of a tux.
Pictures outside were splendid in the shining sun, though I discovered later that I had managed to get a mild sunburn despite my sheen of sweat. Did I mention sweat? It was hot in that tux. I had rivers of sweat coursing over me, so much that I could feel myself dehydrating just standing there. I managed to cool down a little from the oven I was in on first arriving with a combination of shade, water and removing my layers down to the shirt and suspenders before the main ceremony started and I had to layer it all back on. I have NEVER been that hot before yet been unable to do anything about it except sit and take it, though nobody commented that I started to look like a red tomato, so I managed to give a graceful impression, I guess. I was also impressed with the tux shirt I was wearing: despite the massive sweat injection, it did not show any of it – turns out it was some kind of microfiber polyester. Which explains the heat and lack of breathing capabilities, like cotton has… ah well. It looked good regardless, and that’s all that counts.

We headed back to the Inn On the Twenty for the reception soon after 1:30, after all the requisite pictures had been snapped. The reception went smoothly as well, with everyone seated and even the small children co-operating for the most part – high energy, extreme youth and weddings are not a great mix most days.

Jason had created a multimedia presentation set to music, showing images of himself, Ruth-Ann, friends and family from all the stages of their lives. It was beautifully done, with stunningly professional wipes, dissolves and other media touches that had the whole room sitting in rapt attention. He even had a pic of me in there, though it was just my Facebook one – it has been so long since we last got together that he has no digital pictures of me at all!

Dinner was great, and not too involved, which I loved. Being used to massive Italian weddings with far too many courses of far-too-delicious foods, it was great to see a simple, elegant menu of delicious food that did not take hours to dig through yet still left one smiling and satisfied. I also managed to gravitate from usher, to Best Man, to Groom in the course of the reception – when entering the room, the M.C. announced ME as the Best Man( oops! )and at one point, with the guests clinking their glasses for a kiss, Ruth-Ann looked around and since Jason was out of the room, planted the kiss on me! Talk about whirlwind romances…

It was all over by about 5pm, with the guests leaving with grins on their faces as the bridal party and family transferred across the street to the elegant Inn On The Twenty. I lugged my gift around a few more times, and wished whoever had the job after me luck with their back. It was just starting to rain as I left, the big fat drops spattering my windshield as if to say “See? We waited as long as we could and BOY are we glad we could get on with things now!”

I headed to the Fairview Starbuck’s soon after 8pm, to sit for some hours and type up this blog – at almost 6,000 words, it took a while to add and edit it. The wind was gusting rather fiercely, flinging tree limbs about and lashing the passing rain at me as I ran to and from my rental car.

On the way back, the wind was still in full force. So much so, that as I turned onto George St off Carlton, a tree branch cracked and fell in the street about fifty feet ahead. Now, when I say tree branch, I meant limb. A BIG limb. Say, about thirty feet long / wide as the street, weighing in the several-hundred-pound, crush-your-car-roof-like-tinfoil category of limb. I pulled up and stopped, then got out to ask if another guy standing at the end of his driveway was OK, as he looked a little stunned. Turns out he had just turned UNDER that very limb to pull into his driveway and park – seconds later the limb lost its battle with gravity. He soon calmed, and after I took a picture or two( see below )we parted company, with me telling him to buy lotto tickets ASAP! Talk about car-ma!
Damn, I hate being reminded about my own mortality like that. So I took advantage of Rene’s cable TV and watched most of Tank Girl on Teletoon – Lori Petty’s wacko over-the-top performance always cheers me up, despite the poor plot choice of the Ripper’s zoo origins. One of these days I am going to have to pick up the original comic, which I have heard is ten times better than the movie adaption. Go figure.

Sept 15th - The Wrap-up

Up and bleary-eyed for 8am…. then 8:30am after a failed attempt to rouse from bed. I met Brian, Pierre and Josh at the Sunrise Café less than an hour later. It was like old times, save for the fact that Mike was not there… but that’s a 9-5 job for you. We talked about quite a bit of tech, including our thoughts on the Church Of The Banana and how to develop it into something that may one day, with luck, provide some kind of income for us. Of course, we bandied stories about of the various ‘Got Rich by Luck and Skill’ internet multi-millionaires, and I have to admit I heard a few new stories. One such was the guy who parlayed a cell-phone ringtone site into a blog site worth tens of thousands per month. Another was TechCrunch, a blog that gets over a million hits a day. – you can imagine the kind of revenue THAT generates from ads on their site.

I delivered the tux in the Falls then hit the QEW around 2:30pm, passing over the Skyway and getting a fantastic sunlit vista of St. Catharines. Brock slouching on the Escarpment far to the left, panning towards the lake across a vista of pale buildings poking through a sea of green treetops. To the right, Lake Ontario sparkled a deep blue and far across its azure surface Toronto gleamed tiny and bright in the sunshine. Beautiful, even with the scars of local construction appearing ahead.

Travel time was excellent; as I had expected, the traffic jams were all going OUT of Toronto – the ride in was smooth and jam-free. I stopped for an early dinner at the Erin Mills Town Centre just off the 403, minutes from the airport. I remembered a restaurant there called J.J. Tapps, which was unique in that it was a multi-level eatery that took up both the upper and lower floor of a section near the food court. Sadly, things had changed somewhat since my last visit of ten years past – it was now a Pickle Barrel restaurant, and though it still sprawled over several levels, the upper had been disconnected from the lower so that the unique glass-block stairs would not take you winding through the place until you emerged on the second level of the mall. A pity; the design made for a light and airy restaurant, with a waterfall dropping through the entire height of the place – it was now a 'water feature' and much shorter. Change can be cruel to fond memories... but the maple salmon dish was fantastic, and so much could be forgiven on a happy, full stomach.

I took the rental shuttle to the airport after dropping off the car, and settled in to wait near the closed Sunwing Airlines counter around 6pm. After about 45 minutes, I realized that the counter was NOT going to open, despite the many lights. So I trundled quite a ways away, following a tiny electronic sign to discover the actual, active boarding lines, which moved quite quickly. Security was a breeze, despite my glasses falling off my tray and almost being crushed by the rollers. A quick stop for a tea from Tim Horton’s, and I settled into the lounge with well over an hour before boarding began. Despite the lingering smoke in the air from the nearby cookery( quite strong, actually )I dragged a chair over to the only power outlet in the entire lounge and set up to type this remaining entry as my laptop sipped at the tasty current as it typed awkwardly.



Whew! That’s it… a week packed into one blog. Thanks again to ALL of you, my friends, who went out of their way to spend some time with me this week in Niagara. A very special thanks to Rene, who lost sleep in order to host me comfortably and actually get some talk-time in there too. Jen, it was amazing that you were able to make it to the Kilt – your deductive powers triumphed over my innate lack of preplanning to get ahold of you. Thanks to Rene too, for his great comments about this week's blog - miss ya bud! Pics will be updated once I finish learning how to get Imageshack to do thumbnails...