Transformers, Trolleys and Tides

The word of the week is. 

May 30 - The Russians Have Been Looking For Me 

Talk about strange co-incidences: many years ago I lent my voice to a freeware production of a Babylon 5 game called I've Found Her that was developed and released by a group of Russian fans, all of whom worked at the same gaming company. It was a fantastic game( and still is! )but when my part was done we lost touch. Well, it seems that as of last year that self-same group has been actively seeking old group members, one of which is yours truly - I stumbled across the posting on their forums, with my name highlighted in red as 'location unknown.' I fired off an email and got a joyous reply back from the lead developer, who was thrilled to find me again after so many years; score one for the 'net. So I'm not sure where this may go in the future, but I'm flattered that people I've worked with but never met want to perhaps work with me again in the future - who knows what things we may come up with? 

May 31 - My Transformer Arrives! 

Yes, today was the day: my ASUS TF101 Transformer tablet and keyboard dock arrived in the mail! I was worried that they may not get here in time to avoid a possible postal strike, but thankfully the mail gods deemed to let me have my package unmolested. I had a bit of a trial getting it, as I rode my bike today( as part of Bike To Work Week )which meant strapping the rather pricey package to the rear carryall. I also was more out of shape than I thought; even riding down the mountain took a lot more out of me than I'd thought it would. Still, I unboxed the TF101 at work to inspect it; it was in perfect shape and even smaller than I'd thought - perfect for portability! The latching mechanism that links dock and tablet works perfectly, showing excellent design on ASUS' part. It's a lovely little machine and it looks great, being quite a lot smaller than my old Compaq - take a look: 

A few things I really like about the Transformer( apart from the name )are: it fits into a cargo pocket of my shorts, the battery lasts almost 16 hours with the dock, and that I can do everything I could on the old laptop, only faster and more conveniently. I've written a review of the TF101 on ePinions.com which goes into detail about all that this little powerhouse has to offer, if you're curious. I even had the chance later this week to go into F.Shop to compare the TF101 to the Motorola Xoom side-by-side; I found the Xoom to be heavier and less compelling in design, not to mention pricier even just for the wifi version. 

June 1 - No Vacation, yet 

Welcome to Summer! I consider the June to be my own 'unofficial' start of the season this year, as the weather to date has been far too wet and cool to really count. Things on Vancouver Island tend to be very moderate with a slow build; we rarely have extremes of weather or temperatures here - as I've mentioned before, I've heard thunder only twice in the over 3 years I've been living in Victoria. We have sea-borne breezes that carry over from the south, usually blowing over the Olympic Mountains in the USA that chills the air fairly significantly even during the hotter days of summer. Smog is unknown here, meaning I can ride my bike whenever and wherever I want without having to worry about my lungs, as I did in Niagara when some days Toronto was just the CN Tower poking out of a haze of brown murk and the air tasted of diesel. Given that most homes in BC don't have air conditioning and rely on the cooling effect of breezes through open windows, the lack of air pollution is a vital component of life here where the green hills speak of nature not too far removed from your front doorstep. 

June 2 - I rode the Trolley! 

Finally, for the first time I took the Langford Trolley down the mountain and most of the way to work, something I had first hoped to do over a year ago. Just posted outside in the main courtyard is a brand-new Trolley schedule stating that it will be running every 2 hours daily, from 10:30am to 5:30pm May 23 to September 5th. I can't overstate how GREAT this is to have, as until now the only alternatives to using a car( apart from a taxi )to get to work was to walk down the mountain or bike, neither of which is great in poor weather. Now I can catch the Trolley an hour before work to take to the main bus terminal in Langford and transfer to a bus that runs very close to my workplace, getting me there in plenty of time for minimal cost - the Trolley is by donation and the bus is a mere $2.50, so I won't be breaking the bank using a taxi some days to make things work. It's also extremely convenient that my workplace is located next to the main Westshore transfer terminal, so if needed myself or my dad can head into Victoria by bus while juggling car needs for the day. When I do switch jobs, this will perhaps will be a moot point, but for now it doesn't mean I'm spending hours a day commuting or waiting to commute - as I have some days getting to work early or needing to head home by taxi long before my car becomes available. It's all about opportunity and organization, which so far to date have worked almost hand-in hand for our needs. Here's it going right by my place:

June 3 - Chilly Light Atop The World 

Sunsets are something I can't ever seem to get enough of, especially as I'm almost never up for sunrises. I'd never given much thought to the longer days and nights that you get when you're further north, but that means you also get shorter days and nights the other half of the year, right? Well, a photographer spent years of his life compiling gorgeous images of sunrises and sunsets far, far to the north, with the crowning glory being a section of video where the sun sets AND rises all in one shot - without darkness falling in between! Have a look and be amazed by the colours, none of which were enhanced in any way: 

June 4 - Old Laptop Pirates 

My first day of a weekend off, WITH the weather co-operating: it was a stunningly lovely day outside, with blue skies and temperatures climbing into the mid-twenties by noon. I alternated between bouts of lazing on the balcony to decompress and re-doing my old Compaq laptop to give to a friend, as I no longer need it with my purchase of the ASUS Transformer. The Compaq is circa 2005 and even though it's in great condition, it's worth only $100 or so online at LaptopsBuyer.ca - not worth the cost to ship, as it weighs around 2.5kg plus accessories. By late afternoon that task was completed, so I delivered it to my friend and then hung at the Bean( now called The Bear's Den )to watch the Canucks win their semi-final game - really unusual for me to be watching hockey, but I'm trying to be social more of late. That trend continued afterwards, when I went out to see the Pirates Of The Caribbean film Stranger Tides with another friend. I actually enjoyed the film more than I thought, in the main because Johhny Depp's character of Captain Jack Sparrow is just so engaging to watch as he gets into and out of trouble almost non-stop; a true rogue. 

June 5 - It's All About Relaxing... 

Today I would classify as a Lazy Day, but not in the sense that I did nothing - just nothing that I'd consider work. Late breakfast, then I took a tour on my bike up the side of Bear Mountain. Just riding up the gravel path towards the higher points, where I took in some spectacular views. It's extremely quiet up there, except when some jackass on a motorcycle blasts off hard enough to be heard many kilometers away - have I mentioned I despise loud bikes? Anyway, it was great exercise and it found me several more places I'll be heading to to 'get away from things' to be able to write and just relax. It's so fantastic, like living next to a provincial park - which is on the other side of the road; sweet! I'll leave you with a few pics from today to enjoy: 

Looking North towards Mt. Finlayson

South towards the Olympic Mountains

A rather tense week followed by a weekend off with perfect weather: FTW! 

Vexation, Vacations and Vitriol

The word of the week is vexation.

May 23 - Me, Myself and Spock

Leonard Nimoy, aka Spock, was a big influence on my early years - I'm sure those of you who know me well can pick out similarities well beyond my amazing ability to raise one eyebrow by itself. Yet Nimoy is not Spock, at least not all the time( despite his writing two autobiographies I am Not Spock and the later I Am Spock ). This revealing music video of a senior Nimoy simply getting on with a lazy day is well worth a look, if only to picture what Spock as a lazy bum might do on an average day on Earth:

May 24 - Waiting for Godot

It's nice to have a Tuesday off, one of the( few )benefits of my current job that's not 9-5 Mon-Fri. I spent a few hours outside at the Bean, soaking up the sunshine and trying to adjust my laptop screen to cut down on the glare – not an easy task. I'm hoping my new Asus Transformer will be more forgiving of sunshine-glare, as I plan on taking it more places outside as it's far more portable than the 2.5kg brick of a 2005-era Compaq laptop. Which is still nice to have, mind you, just not nice to tote around. Just walking around the Bear Mountain area is fantastic, with green trees falling to the eye over the hills wherever you look. It really does feel like a resort here, yet it's so close to the city when needed. BONUS: I've seen the Langford Trolley( check out the picture of Mt. Finlayson, I live right below the word 'Questions' )three times in the last week making its way up here, so maybe there's summer service? If so, I'll be tickled to have it as an option instead of walking for an hour uphill – IF I time it right.

May 25 - Lego Legend

Now this is a blend of Very Cool and OCD, using Lego bricks to realize the dream of many a Lego-wielding child with limited time and a small allowance. Gerry Burrows is building the 'Garrison of Moriah' in his specially-made basement room and he's already used close to 250,000 bricks in the process. As a kid, I dreamed of making massive Lego structures built to the scale of the Lego mini-figures, but even my creative mind-pictures pale next to the reality that has taken shape in Gerry's home. Truly a work of original art, my only question is this: how can he take it on tour to Lego conventions if he can't get the structures out of his basement? A shame.

May 26 - Weird Weather

The weather out here in southern BC has been rather cold and wet this spring – a big change from the extreme heat of last year. From historical records, we should be seeing things warming up quickly here in a few weeks, when the Island begins to dry out and the forests that cover the land all around become tinder-dry. Which worries me somewhat, given events like the massive wildfire that wiped the town of Slave Lake off the map. In a weird turn of technology, Google Maps is being used to compare before-and-after images of the town for damage assessment, something that has been used in the USA as well during the recent spate of deadly weather there. Many destroyed homes and businesses now only exist in digital form – very creepy.

May 27 - Farewell, Zack Allan    

Another light has been lost: Jeff Conaway passed away today at the young age of 60. He was remembered for his roles in the movie Grease and the TV series Taxi plus of course Babylon 5 – on B5 he played the character of Zack Allan, one of the 'regular guys' on the show dealing with all the crazy problems that life of a space station threw at them. I found him to be immensely likable as Zack, a trait that those who knew him said was innate to Jeff; he was the kind of guy who would give you the shirt off his back, which is something that I take towards myself most days. It is a tragedy that Jeff's substance abuse problems overwhelmed him in the end, as I had hoped his real-world life would come to a better end than the bitter regrets his character Zack Allan was left with at the end of Babylon 5: the road not taken.

May 28 - On Breakfast and Saturdays

Ah, breakfast: the most important meal of the day. Years ago, I dearly loved going out to brekkie with my friends a few times a week; our mutual schedules made it possible, even when I was working nights. Now, I breakfast alone, usually at A&W as they tend to have coupons on a regular basis – weird how only they and McDonald's do that regularly in this age of tight-budget consumers. When's the last time you've seen a coupon for Wendy's, Tim Horton's, or other chains? Anyway... I suppose what I'm saying is that I miss those breakfast get-togethers more than I thought, as they were relaxing breaks( -fast? )during hectic weeks when you could just chill with friends.

Like yesterday: a hectic day where it was insanely busy at work from the first moment, so much so that I sent myself home early just to recover... a nap, a shower, see a few TV shows on DVD then out to the Station House for the eve worked very well!

May 29 – Are you F*cking KIDDING me?????

Yesterday ended with me in a VERY bad mood: I learned that my workplace had unilaterally cancelled ALL vacations for our region due to not having enough staff to go around. This after two senior staff were fired for unknown reasons this week... so although its understandable that it'd be unfair to 'allow' some people to go on vacation while others work 6-day 10-hour shifts to keep the doors open, it's made employee morale plummet – mine included. I have 5 weeks of vacation time backlogged BECAUSE we've been understaffed for so long AND it's been ME putting in those 6-day weeks for the last year... so I've been looking forward to my vacation time to recover, avoid burnout and to visit my friends and family out east. Which has now been cruelly taken away by our current temporary boss PLUS it's not being discussed as to IF vacations will 'be allowed' during the next 2-3 months. [end rant]

I expect to see a fair bit of staff turnover soon, myself included, as people head for greener pastures instead of staying with a company that only pays lip service to caring about its employees. But I've known that for a long while now, in my bitter heart. Just up and quitting seems more appealing, but I just can't bring myself to be unemployed with no income, or to take a menial job that pays much less – I'm not making all that much as it is, so moving on AND moving up weighs heavily on me. Responsibility is like that - it sucks quite often.

Things change . The better or worse part is in how you embrace that change, or fight it. Or let it destroy you.

Decisions, Deals and Doomsday Done

The word of the week is imbecile, something I rarely bother to call people as they usually don't know what it means.

May 16 - Still waiting for a travel deal...

This week I worked six days in a row, not a large stretch by anyone's measure but to me, right now, it seemed to drag on forever especially with a 13-hour day tossed in there. I'm long overdue for a vacation; my next one is a month away, with a week in late June followed by two weeks in July. I've been scouring the 'net for deals for airline tickets to travel out to Calgary and from there on to Niagara, but so far it's been slim pickings. I'm hoping that by the time I'm ready to fly the first week of July that I'll have been able to find a solid deal, as paying full-price for airline tickets really sticks in my craw. Still, I'd consider it worth full price to see my sister and my friends again this summer!

May 17 - Seen it yet?

Every year, it seems there are a dozen( or more )movies that I don't get around to seeing that I add to my Must See list, ones that I don't even end up getting on DVD. The list has grown in fits and lurches as my time and memory permits, but I'm always open to seeing what other Must See lists have on them. Maxim just came out with The 300 Movies You Must See Before You Die list, which I think has a fair chunk of the ones I've got... though I've seen a lot of them, thankfully. Check it out and see if there's a few on there you may have forgotten about; I'll bet there are!

May 18 -  It Was Andreas K's 65th Today

Those of you who know me well, know that I love Babylon 5. And in that show, there are two characters I enjoyed seeing the most: Londo Mollari as played by Peter Jurasik and G'Kar as played by the late Andreas Katsulas. The dynamic that these two actors brought to their characters was incredible to see: touching, dramatic, deep and humorous in equal measures. For Andreas, it was a role of a lifetime, one he came to embrace and be embraced for; he was loved by millions of B5 fans, something he continued to find incredible until the day he passed beyond the veil. Of all the things I have seen or read or heard, I find that the words of JMS that Andreas made his own through the mask of G'Kar to be among the truest and most moving performances I know of. Listen, and you may be moved:

May 19 - I Bought a Transformer!

Finally! For weeks now, I've been trying to land an ASUS Transformer tablet, but with no success - the things are sold out across North America for the next month or two until new supplies arrive. After scouring the 'net, I finally came across a genial fellow on the RFD forums who had bought both a Motorola Xoom and a Transformer, then decided he liked the Xoom better( here's a great comparison here of the top 4 tablets, including the iPad ). So after a little back-and-forth, it was a done deal ... I got the tablet AND the dock for the same price as I'd have paid retail, plus shipping. Considering the things are going for a fair margin above that on eBay and elsewhere, I'd say I came out ahead in the deal, despite the overall cost. I think it will be worth it; considering that the tablet by itself weighs 1/4 what my 2005-era laptop does with the same battery life, I'd say it will add tons of portability to my ability to write and work most anywhere I choose. I can hardly wait for it to arrive; since there was no word on the 3G version, I decided to simply jump in and upgrade later, when possible.

May 20 - The World, My Way      

Now here's a great point about the way media controls us, and how WE can control the media - and why too much of either methodology is BAD for us. In a world of Facebook, RSS feeds, email and media streaming via the web, we can tune in and tune out at our pleasure. Similar to not watching the Buffalo Channel 7 News at night for the first ten minutes, you can tune out all the Bad Things like murders, war, fires and the rest and just focus on the nice things like singing cats and amazing survival stories. But if you tune all that out, aren't you really retreating to a fantasy world of your own creation, where little news of reality penetrates your sunshine-and-rainbow-coloured firewall? C|Net has a great article on just this topic, it's worth a read, if only so you can recognize the symptoms when you begin to tune out...

May 21 - The Day The World Didn't End, Again

Gosh, it's a surprise to be writing this today, considering that the world was predicted to end on this date. Unfortunately for those with crappy day jobs, no life and mountains of bills, that didn't happen... but overall, I'm glad we're all still here on this ball of rock floating in space. I'm also amused that many Canadians took the chance to poke fun at the doomsayers - some others decided to take advantage of the end of the world with special offers. Still others decided it would be fun to prank the rapturists... I think I like that last one best. Besides, we all know that if the world is going to end, it will not be with a bang, but a whimper...

May 22 - Directions, Decided

Today was a difficult day for me... a lot of things came to a head, in a carryover from last night. After a frank talk with my parents, I've set down a few things I need to do in the next year in order to keep my sanity, now that their situation is stabilized and they are almost self-supporting. One of those things is for me to go back to school, to finish my degree - this has always been a regret of mine that circumstances years ago forced me to choose between my education and my family. Along with my obvious desire to get a new job, these two things will be my focus for the next year in order to keep my mental balance up. I've felt that I've been treading water in many areas for over a decade and now that the end of the long swim is here, with land in sight, I have to pick where I want to come ashore and start discovering new landscapes. It should be an interesting remainder of the year, in many good ways, I hope.

It's been a long week; I have Monday and some of Tuesday off and I need that time to decompress. I hope everyone's having a good spring so far; I'll 'see' you all next week!

Charity, China and Change

The word of the week is polysemous; a lovely-sounding word.

May 9 – Leave a job? Find more? Maybe.

 

Funny how both change and misery love company, as I commented last week when misery won out a few days in a row. Now the pendulum swings the other way, where I'm more and more looking forward to quitting my job; we had a new policy come into play today that makes leaving less of a cutting of ties and more of a hiatus, preserving wages / benefits / position in case of a total new-job flop. Also, I've been enjoying the company of a certain someone more regularly lately, which I think means the interest is mutual. However, I believe that for now it would be smarter for me to find a new job / new place before throwing that little bombshell on the emotional burner to simmer. Straining my focus with too many things may make the most precious of them fail. But enough about what may or may not be; instead, I present: Cats In Tanks! ( warning: NSFW / exploding people )

May 10 - Bye bye, clutter!

Finally, I had to do it – I had to de-clutter my tech hoard from years past, as I came to the realization this past weekend that it was going to be too much bother to try and part out these null-value bits to people around the world who may( or may not )find a thing or two useful. Old PS2 mice, MANY cables, video cards, two large UPS's and a host of other adapters and computer boards all went into three large bins. That and more went over to UVic today to be properly disposed of by a student charity drive, benefiting the TLC Fund for Kids. Ours was the first donation and the students were thrilled to see SO MUCH STUFF being brought in for proper disposal. Total cost to me was $30 and I feel great that I didn't end up landfiling any hazardous items. Plus I now have a lot more room in storage... very cathartic. Reduce, reuse and when in doubt, recycle.

May 11 - From China, Direct to You!

We all know many of our consumer products come from China, traveling through various middlemen to end up on store shelves with many extra costs added. Two sites I enjoy browsing regularly are Meritline.com and DealExtreme.com, which are direct-from-China resellers that have very low prices on many tech goods and other items that you might find useful. So far I've purchased cables, small tool sets and a few other things that I couldn't find locally for a decent price( or at all! )and that were rather more expensive even on eBay. It's worth checking them out as an option before you buy something, as you may be surprised by the cost savings they offer. Right now I'm waiting for a $4.00 case for my old Xbox hard drive to arrive; the next-best price I found for it was on eBay for twice that plus shipping. No-brainer there.

May 12 - Xoom vs. Transformer

Today I went into Future Shop and played around with a Motorola Xoom for a few minutes to get a feel for the machine. My overall impression? A little sluggish, heavy and Not Quite There Yet( the web browser glitched up more than a few sites ). For the price, I expected something faster and not quite as hefty. Which is why I'm leaning towards the Asus Transformer, which has a novel detachable full notebook-size keyboard that also doubles the battery life, among other things. The first generation is out now( and is $200 cheaper than the Xoom! )so if I hang in there, the 3G-enabled wireless-anywhere version should be out by the summer. Being able to tote a tablet around with the ability to attach a keyboard for longer type-heavy sessions really appeals to me, as I detest on-screen keyboards a lot.

May 13 – Annoying Things Explained

I'm a pretty laid back guy( probably too laid-back in some ways, depending on who you ask )so I guess it's no surprise that I don't find too many things in life annoying. Irritating, maybe... but I won't bore you with a short list of such. I'll point you instead towards the reasons we find things annoying; have you ever thought about them? Some people can sit next to a gaggle of chatterbox noodleheads and not flick an eyelash, while others would run from the room screaming after only a minute – guess which I am? Still, this is the fabric of our world, where everyone's different and we should celebrate those differences... if sometimes from a safe distance. Like Victoria BC's new $60K open-air urinal downtown... where was I going with this again? I forget; how annoying!

May 14 - My Apartment is a Jenga Puzzle!

I know, I know... some weeks it seems that I have an obsession with small houses. Yet there's just me, so why pay more to live in a place with space I won't use? Yet another fine example of using limited space to the max( and beyond )is smartly show below - I just LOVE seeing creative projects like these!

May 15 - On blogging for 3.5 years now...

You may wonder what I do each week to write this blog; some weeks it's easy and some it's not, depending on my mood and what's going on at the time. Nothing unusual there. What IS interesting is that I've managed to create 183 blog posts, which each consist of 7 different days with an average of 1-2 'topics of interest' per day. Which means that without repeating myself, I've covered over 2,500 Unique Things That Interest Me - I find that astounding and thus worthy of a blog entry today. Seeing as I spent my weekend in the main relaxing, gaming and surfing the web for said topics, it's quite appropriate to toss it in here. I make an effort to gather things that I find intriguing and pass them on akin to social-led instant news sites like Reddit.com and Fark.com and even the venerable CoolSiteOfTheDay.com - there's a lot out there to be interested in!

It's going to rain all week here, but there's no smog and a distinct lack of smothering humidity. Let's hope that it's the start of a fair-weather trend, with Added Sunshine soon! Plus we're now up to 5 Google Followers on this blog; hiya Cheri and Kara!

Advice, Awesome and( Fresh )Air

The word of the week is awesome, which tends to be underrated these days.

May 2 - Fresh Air Beats Cold Symptoms

Thanks to medications, rest and the usual plenty-of-fluids, I'm feeling much better this week having rid myself of the cold that decided to visit me unasked. I'm still tired, but no more so than usual for me - I'm hoping that the fresh spring air and warmer temperatures will tempt me into taking a few bike rides soon enough. I'm walking home from work several nights a week, which adds up to about 12km of walking, some of it uphill, so that exercise is excellent; I'm not out of breath at all even when I push myself moderately, which is a good sign. Soon enough I'll be able to run along a beach without fear of untoward jiggling in odd places and not blinding passerby with my pale, hirsute countenance. Nice!

May 3 – The Bacon Song!

Uh oh... I noticed last week that it's been some time since I mentioned bacon in this blog – sacrilegious in some ways, some might say. Fortunately, one of the many talented folks on YouTube recently came up with this gem of a tune to fill one's soulful sympathetic sizzling bacon needs nicely:

May 4 - Happy Star Wars Day!

May The Fourth be with you today ... that works on many levels, including the lowest( and my favourite ): puns! It was announced today that the complete Star Wars saga will be available in Fall 2011 on Blu-Ray, with 40 hours of extra features including all the ones from previous DVD releases. As I don't have any of the films on DVD( an odd oversight for me, I know )this is good news; I'll probably pick the Complete Saga up in the new year once prices fall a little. Of course I'll need to have picked up a Blu-Ray player of some kind by then... giving in to the inevitable and with a nod to the fact that the Next Big Thing will be along soon to make Blu-Ray obsolete as soon as I plunk down the cash for a player – it's the way of things.

May 5 - Xbox Slim Super Special Deal!

For over three years now, I've owned an Xbox360 Elite which has seen somewhat infrequent use. For the most part, it's been used to game online with friends; it's a rare time that I plunk down for more than a few minutes to play games solo – I don't know why, but I'd rather play solo games on the PC; maybe it's a learned habit to use a keyboard and mouse( which may be more relaxing than clutching a controller ). Today though, I traded in the refurbished 360 Elite for a new 360 Slim... for a total of $35 out of pocket; I love specials! I'll be transferring the old 250 gig hard drive( almost full )to the new console as soon as the new-style case arrives in the mail. A little technical tinkering and it should be set up just like the old console, but with a lot less noise and a lot more reliability. Plus a new warranty = win. You can still get in on the special until May 12th at EB Games, if you're interested.

May 6 - E-ink on cloth? Paper computers?

Shades of Blade Runner , Batman! Two technological breakthroughs in one week - I can hardly contain myself! After a decade of development, it's now possible to make a display flexible enough to print on cloth - have a look at the video in the link and imagine what this is going to do for the t-shirt industry! Second Major Breakthrough? Superthin flexible displays... not just to display data, but to interact with it. Imagine: paper-thin smartphones that you can roll up like the unwanted flyers you find on your windshield. Only more expensive and not quite at the stage where the tech is fully realized. But the staggering potential is there; I just love that I could drop the thing or sit on it and not EVER worry about shattering the screen!

May 7 - Life Advice, Free!

Advice is always good when it's free, but one should always take it with a grain of salt( or three ). Apart from that rhyming sentence, some very good advice for Life In General has been compiled by LifeHacker in their Top Ten Solutions To Real Life's Most Annoying Problems. It has some great links in there for many of the common problems that we all face; I myself have found the section on burnout to be rather informative and helpful - for those days when the 1000 Awesome Things site( see below! )doesn't help, that is. Go have a browse through; what can it hurt? It may even help!

May 8 - Awesome x1000

Today was definitely a day of rest, with online games interspersed with some time at the Bean( soon not to be called that )next door and a little gratuitous nap time thrown in for good measure; the usual fare. What's not usual is a site called 1000 Awesome Things.com, which collects and posts all of the things in life that people find awesome! From underwear fresh from the dryer to that fresh smell after it rains, people have flocked in the millions to this simple blog site to remind all of us that life is Full Of Awesome. Which really, you shouldn't need reminding of, but it's nice to have a list of some things that you may not have experienced in a while - I like #255 myself, as I'm sometimes That Guy at work. Unhealthy? Yes. Tasty? Hell Yes! Same thing next week? Maybe.

It seems I have a third follower now in as many weeks, though I'm not sure what language they speak - be welcome all the same, ulfacannademilovato!

A reminder: this weekly blog goes back to Nov. 1st 2007! If you want to see previous entries, they're grouped by date on the left-hand side of the blog. Browse a little; I make an effort every week to put Interesting Things in there for you!

Colds, Creeks and Comics

The word of the week is trepidation. Don't stress about it.

April 25 - Let the nasal discharge begin...

Bah; looks like I picked up a cold over the weekend, likely from riding public transit home on Saturday - it was warm enough that I didn't wear gloves and I'll just bet I shared a handrail with someone who used their hand to stifle a sneeze - ick. My throat's sore and my nose is threatening to run off by itself... but that's the way it goes. I learned many years ago to avoid most winter colds by not touching my face at ALL without first washing AND sanitizing my hands. The university I went to had many separate sections with hallways, each section closed off by doors - EVERY one with a doorknob. Add thousands of sick students to the mix each cold season and YOU do the math as to how many germy hands touched each doorknob every hour of every day - totally gross!

April 26 - More Bad Enviro News

Last weekend a fuel truck crashed along the highway next to Goldstream Park, which is an environmental tragedy as the fuel went right into the creek. I thought it was bad when I mentioned that fluorescent dye had appeared in the streamsome months ago, but this is far, far worse. It may mean the end of the salmon run in Goldstream Park, leaving many species such as bears and the rare bald eagles without a source of food they depend on. Having driven the highway that curls around the park and wends its way along sheer rocky cliffs, I know it's not a great route to travel when the weather's bad... but this crash happened in daylight with no foul weather. It's tragic that we can't figure out a safer way to transport toxic substances across our country than on the back of a thin-skinned tanker truck...

April 27 - Achoo to me and you!

My cold is in full swing; I'm battling it with some success with the help of decongestants, vitamin C and nasty thoughts towards germs in general, plus some echinacea herbs to level the playing field. So far, it's just meant that I'm tired of blowing my nose when nobody's looking; I highly recommend tissues with lotion, as I'm surprised at how quickly one's nose gets sore from the constant attention. I'm just hoping that it doesn't move into my chest, as a chest cold is even worse in some ways... ah well. At least I avoided one all winter and maybe the fresh spring air will help me recover sooner rather than later.  

April 28 - I don't wanna work...

Things at work aren't getting better; it's not that I don't know how to do my job, but that I can't bring myself to really care to do it well. I know this is one of the signs of burnout, but there's little I can do about it other than quitting completely - which I'm not going to do until I either a) have found a comparably-paying job or b) have enough saved up to just go on a work sabbatical for up to 6 months to clear my head. As I've mentioned before, I'm almost at a point where in a few months I will have less to worry about financially, so I can sit back and not fret that I'm letting down my family fiscal obligations by quitting my job. It's something I've been looking forward to for some time( years! )but I don't want to go from a being a manger to bagging groceries just to duck out on some stress. It's not like I've had anything you could call a career, but I would like to find an alternate job that I can take with some nod to making use of my past skill sets and current talents.

April 29 - Comic Relief

I've read comics for many years, both the kind you buy in stores and the ones you read in newspapers. In particular, the second kind have become rarer in my life, as it's been many years since I last subscribed to a newspaper - I think it was the Toronto Star. I really enjoyed browsing to the comics section daily and reading up on my favourite strips; the best ones always had a humorous take on life's foibles in general. Of late, I've taken to browsing the T.Star again online and discovered that they have a feature that lets you select your fave comic strips to view daily! So once again Hagar The Horrible, Zits and Sherman's Lagoon have been making me laugh in the mornings - and without getting ink all over my hands either!

April 30 - Really, Really Exhausted

Argh... busy days and cold recovery do not mix; today was a case in point. It wasn't so bad for most of the day, as I had another staffer on, but less than 30 minutes after she left the crowds started to pack in. I've no idea why, as it was a lovely day outside ALL day long so there was no reason to come in all at once before dinner, but there they were. I spent the last 2 hours of my shift frantically dealing with an onslaught of people and phone calls for no reason I could discern, with the usual "How come there's only you working?" thrown in there time and again at me. I'd love to answer "How come you didn't come in when the place was empty two hours ago?" but I can't; all I could do was deal and disarm with charm. I went home bloody well exhausted and fell asleep a few times before finally dozing off totally well before 11pm. At least my sinuses seem clear now...

May 1st - A New Month Of Sunshine And NWN

It was a gloriously sunny day outside, and after I managed to wake up for the third time a little before noon I got outside to enjoy it a bit. I was too beat to do much save move some plants around on the balcony, re-potting some and generally giving those that survived the winter a better base to thrive now that spring is here. It was great just to be outside and enjoy the combination of fresh air with general peace and quiet, broken only by the occasional loud golfer or passing motorcycle in the distance. I'd have surfed the net outside, but my old Compaq laptop's screen is just too dim to use easily even in the shade outdoors. In the evening I gamed for a few hours on NWN, again with some old friends I'd not seen in some time... there's just something special about that game and playing it with friends that brings back memories of tabletop sessions of decades ago. Only with actual visual representations of magic - sweet!

As I finished the blog tonight, word that Osama Bin Laden had been killed reached me. I wasn't sure how to react: relief that the hand behind Sept. 11th was dead, or dread that a new round of martyr-fed violence was going to start? We shall have to see and hope that humanity can move towards betterment...

Also, I seem to have gained a Follower on this blog - welcome to you, ballroomdiva_15~!

Thrones, Timmy's and Tabulation

The word of the week is humdinger - you just don't HEAR that any more!

April 18 - Game Of Thrones

Game of Thrones is premiering this week, and I'm interested enough to pick up the books soon to start reading - if they're heavy on politics though, I'm not going to bother as it'd remind me too much of soaps. Which I detest. The opening sequence for the series looks incredible( watch it in HD, it's stunning! )so I'm willing to give it a chance, especially as it has Sean Bean in it. Has anyone out there read any of the series? Is it worth pursuing, or no? I have a feeling it's going to be like Robert Jordan's Wheel Of Time series, where a cast of thousands slowly numbs your brain until you just skip to the last page to find out how the whole mess ends...

April 19 -HOW much does a Timmy's owner make???

I've heard the comment "Tim Horton's is a license to print money" more than a few times in my lifetime, but I've never given it much thought even after working for a franchise owner years ago. Now, thanks to a class action lawsuit that's been before the courts for a while now( frozen donuts = bad business )we've been given a look at how MUCH a Tim Horton's franchise owner makes in profit each year. It's eye-popping: the average PROFIT for an owner is over $250,000 a year - that's income, folks, substantially so, even before taxes. I never thought it would be THAT much, akin to what the owner of a car dealership makes in a year I'll bet, though that's likely to be less now that the economy has made cars a less-often purchased item compared to a Double Double at Tim's. Wow, talk about a sure thing!

April 20 -Where to Vacation in 2011?

I posted a Poll to my FBook profile this week, asking what people thought about various options I was considering as to where I'd go for my July 2011 2-week vacation. So far, the most popular seems to be 'Niagara To Visit Friends' but considering less than 10% of the people I asked voted, it's a little underwhelming. I'll check out seat sales at the various airlines, as well as looking at car rental options - no way I'm hot-footing it around for those 2 weeks. I'm also considering spending a day or two driving north to visit friends in Milton and T.O. so that's MUCH easier with 2 weeks instead of one. All in all, Niagara looks to be the winner, as vacationing by myself, even on a beach somewhere, really doesn't appeal to me. I'm already quite alone out here in BC, so why would I want to go somewhere ELSE to be alone?

April 21 -We're Second Best!

The good weather is rolling in here, with temperatures this coming weekend expected to climb into the low teens – about time! Combined with sunshine, it looks like Spring has finally woken up and smelled the pollen around here. I forgot to mention last week that Victoria BC was ranked #2 on MoneySense.ca's Canada's Best Places To Live List 2011 – sweet! We're tops when it comes to low pollution, job market( that helps my searches! )and being able to walk / bike to work year-round. Seems that my research data on the same subjects back in 2007 before my move is still holding solid; now I have to figure out how to land a solid job alternate and find a place near enough that I can forgo the need for a vehicle. Transit still irks me, in that it's a crowded moving room full of strangers, but I'd rather take a bus in Canada than in downtown LA or London, England. Same goes for biking in either city too!

April 22 - My iPhone finally dies

My iPhone decided to suicide last night; I set it to erase all settings to help it back to usability, but it didn't come back from that and merely mocked me with the Apple logo until the battery died. I have to say I've been LESS than impressed with the long-term usability of my used iPhone 3G: apps and media vanished without warning over and over, the phone reception was spotty in a LOT of places, the battery life was inconsistent and in general I used it only to read books and do the occasional Facebook update. I'll hand it over to a friend to see if he can't restore it to its proper glory, but at this point I'm looking to go back to my trusty gold LG8700 Shine phone and wait until I see the 3G-enabled Motorola Xoom appear for offer with Telus later in the year. I can wait, as I have a credit with them I can apply, as the Motorola Xoom looks to be the tablet I'll be buying... once it shows up. So long, iPhone; you won't be missed, despite your useful and entertaining little apps. I will say you were better than the LG IQ-related stupidity I went through back in Dec 2010, but only by a few degrees. Meh.

April 23 - Caffeine Isn't Your Friend

New Sleep-Well Rule: no more caffeine after 6pm for me.. I was up well after 2am, with admittedly a lot on my mind, but I'm usually too exhausted to let that keep me up. I was aware that caffeine stays in your body for a long time, but I had no idea that 8 hours later I'd still be sleepless – it doesn't seem to have the same effect on me in the morning. At least I could sleep in today, as I worked in the afternoon... which I was dropped off several hours early for( again )and spent the time semi-productively at the McDonald's on Island Highway. I arrived just in time for the hordes of screaming-kid-dragging parents to be leaving, which was nice; things were basically quiet once 1pm hit, and I headed to work with a clear head under the brilliantly-shining sun. It also helped that I'd packed a pair of headphones and dialed into Last.fm though the free WiFi @ McD's, though I have yet to get my PogoPlug home media device to accept easy media streaming to my ancient Ubuntu laptop; just one more tech challenge for me.

April 24 -I feel like writing... a little.

The good weather seems to have lifted my mood a fair deal( SAD, anyone? )more so than for many months. I've re-read some of my older stories, as ideas for new ones percolated in my brain; I've scribbled down ideas here and there for the last year, but not done more than outline a very few of them. Now that my stress levels are lowering and energy levels rising, it's time to commit more than a skeleton of words to the page. I'll leave you with another product that takes memories of my youth and twists them into something both scary AND smelly: Official D&D Perfumes. 'nuff said.

Yep, that's enough for this week - I wish my real life would hurry up and get here!

Emptiness, Erudition and Empathy

The word of the week is 'shǎjīng -  it's both dumb AND clever! 傻精傻精

April 11 - Dozens of Empty Cities In China

If you've ever wondered how numbers can hurt the world, look no further:

This falls under 'Looks Great On Paper, Stinks In Reality.' Of this sort of thing are economic crashes made of! 65 million new empty houses... it boggles the mind.

April 12 - Sleep Measurement, from Sweden!

For the past four months or so, I've been measuring my sleep cycles via an iPhone app named, appropriately enough, 'Sleep Cycle' - go figure. It uses the motion sensor in the phone to track when you're awake( motion )or deeply asleep( no motion )and display it as a chart, thusly:

Looking at the charts, I've tried to correlate the good nights vs. the bad for things like stress, early / late bedtimes, video games / TV before bed and the like. So far, the only thing that has shown a marked improvement in my sleep cycle is exercising that day for at least a half hour( no surprise there ). I slept the best I had in some time the same days that I walked up the mountain home; something symbolic in that.

April 13 - Autism

Over the years, one story idea that's rattled around my head from time to time has been about being IN my head - trapped, if you will. I've wondered( with some horror )what it would be like if a person was trapped inside their own mind due to an accident or illness and how that would play out. Thanks to Brian, I now know that there's a story in there, along with a person and a good dose of empathy. Watch this video and make sure you have a handkercheif handy - it doesn't tug the hearstrings, it yanks.

April 14 - Bilbo Begins!

More years ago than I like to think, the Lord Of The Rings film trilogy hit the big screen and brought Tolkien's works to dazzling life in ways that few thought were possible given the medium. They were( and still are! )glorious films that I watch when I can, but only when I have the time to enjoy each one from start to finish uninterrupted - call it escapism, if you must. How amazing then, to learn that Peter Jackson has begun filming on The Hobbit TODAY - and there's VIDEO! Here you go:

Follow The Hobbit - Start Of Production - in HD to watch it in HD on The Hobbit's Facebook page!

April 15 - Why Story Matters in games

As a writer, I tend to pay closer attention than most to the bones of a story. Heck, I pay close attention to story in MOST types of media, movies included. But when it comes to video games, story seems to be taking a back seat to graphics and gameplay - which is understandable, as a story-centric game would be little more than a text adventure from the 80's. Which can be fun, but won't work out the video card in your PC much. Working on your brain is what the story does, in any medium, and for video games, it sometimes has to be said in plain words - check out this great C|Net article on Why Story Matters In Games.

April 16 - Real Faces For TCats And Turtles

Two of my favourite 80's shows are TMNT and Thundercats, though I have yet to pick up either on DVD; TMNT tended to have good and bad series, depending on what decade you were in. There are a LOT of other fans out there who share my tastes, but thankfully some of them are a LOT better visual artists:

Maybe they should tap that guy above to work on the new Thundercats reboot? Might be an idea!

April 17 - Sunday: Not what it used to be

Sundays seem to be a bit of a wash for me, which is a total 180 from years ago when I always had them off( and thus usually gamed all day ). Now I work every Sunday, which doesn't seem to matter much as the salad days of playing COD in the morning with my friends in ON are over with - nobody plays as a group anymore, at least not regularly like we used to. Things have switched on Sundays, in that I now game in the evening in NWN, slaying dragons( or wizards, or what-have-ye )instead of shooting baddies in a crazy twitch-fest. I have to say NWN is more relaxing, in that I've yet to have a 'bad game' in NWN, compared to days / weeks in COD where my score tended to lower the median - globally. Let's hear it for magic winning over machine guns, and roleplaying triumphing over... romping? Meh.

Ack - just tired tonight. Enjoy the blog!

Spring, Silliness and SSD's

The word of the week is chipotle - everyone needs some spice!

April 4 - Coverage

Spring is here: it’s wet and cloudy, but already the cherry blossoms are out in full force all over southern Vancouver Island. It’s at this time of year that I start to think about heading back to Niagara; this year it looks somewhat dubious time-wise, but financially it should be no problem – weird, that combination. The time has to do with scheduling at work: the earliest I can take my vacation( I have 4 weeks saved up )is in late June or early July. The bean-heads at head office keep denying requests for 1 more staff member; as it stands we’re ‘fully staffed’ which means if anyone’s sick or wants to go on vacation the whole schedule goes to hell and everyone’s miserable. In effect, we’re being held hostage to minimum outlays for labour to benefit the company, not our health. Compare that to Tim Horton’s next door, which can have over a dozen people working at any one time and my ire rises exponentially – I’ve done a few brief cost analysis charts and I believe I’m totally in the right frame of costs. No surprise there, really.

April 5 - Crappy64 is back!

What's old is new again, as the saying goes - in this case, the venerable Commodore 64 is being reborn. I wasn't lucky enough to have one( or an NES, I know, it's weird... )but I do remember playing Mail Order Monsters for hours over at a friend's house. I was impressed enough at that age to have a serious look at the Commodore Amiga that was released a few years later - which I DID buy, albeit a used one. It was the first computer I had with a hard drive - before that, I had a Coleco ADAM, a freakish low-cost home 'computer' that mated with a game console and ran on cassette tapes. It was good for its day and I enjoyed the games I played on it... but I wouldn't go back to play very many of them, even on a Coleco emulator. Well, maybe Donkey Kong. In any case, I'm not sure what market the C64 is being aimed at, in this day of handheld tablet PC's and smartphones. Nostalgia will only sell so many units...

April 6 - In Darkest Night

Green Lantern looks to be the 'must -see' comic-book film of the year, arriving soon at a theatre near you. If 

you haven't seen the trailer, take a gander and wait for your jaw to drop:

I've always liked Green Lantern, especially for the clear-cut lessons it imparts about good, evil and the power of the individual. Plus, the colour green is my favourite and those power rings are just damn cool!

April 7 - Consumerism Savings

A few months ago, I mentioned The Best Time to Buy Things 2011 list  – since we're in a new quarter, I thought I'd bring it up again, as there are a few things on there you might really save some money on. According to the list, right now TV's and laptops are looking to be moved, so hunt around for some good deals. Cruises are also looking for passengers; here in Victoria over a hundred cruise ships are expected to dock here during the Spring / Summer season, which is a LOT of business. I do also hunt regularly on RedFlagDeals.com, which is fantastic site to drop by every other day to see if you can catch wind of a deal online or locally. There are thousands of sharp-eyed consumers with connections out there who post on RFD's, so it's inevitable that there will be mention of something on there sooner or later you've been waiting to buy on sale.

April 8 - BBQ?

I'm hoping that things in Niagara are going to become spring-like soon; I remember this time of year being somewhat annoying in that it was usually quite cold and rainy right up until May. Which is not to say that one can't barbeque ANY time of the year, but it's best on warm spring / summer nights. I haven't had a barbeque( or a porch, for that matter )for over a decade now and I find I miss it. Tossing some sausages and burgers onto the grill is almost a national pastime for most guys and I find myself missing it oddly most days. Except for the sausages - I always managed to forget to drain out the juices a little and so scalded my tongue on more than a few occasions. At least my taste buds seem to have grown back...

Anyone out there have their grill going yet? Want to send me some burgers? ;-)

April 9 - SSD Arrives!

After a brief morning at work, I retired to the Bean for a few hours and then was home well before 3pm, to install my new( cheaply bought! Sale! Savings! )SSD computer drive( Solid State Drive ). It’s only 64gb, so I had to first trim down Windows Vista( boring and difficult! )then back it up( again rather boring, but Paragon Backup made it easy AND it was free! )before going on to re-install it from said backup copy( about 1.5 hours of boring )onto the new SSD. And WOW, what a difference in speed! I went from a thumb-twiddling 15 minutes of loading to... 3 minutes, which is right on where Kingston( the makers of this SSD )said the speed would be, at about 5x’s as fast as a regular hard drive, which my old 200gb is. Coupled with the annoying-but-functional 500gb hybrid Seagate SSD, I can now boot my system back and forth from Win7( for my daily tasks / games )and Vista, which I use almost exclusively for NWN, as it just doesn’t get along with Win7 – at least not on my machine. So I’m a happy camper that things went smoothly( for once )and as planned. Speedy system on the cheap... and while I was at it, I tossed in some more RAM, so I now have 16 gigs of memory to use; too bad I don’t own a copy of Photoshop. Maybe next year...

April 10 - Walking Uphill

Another half-day at work; being the manager hath its privileges, even if it’s only to leave early to save on hours( at the expense of my paycheque but to the cheers of the bean counters at head office ). As usual, I could only take the bus as far as Millstream road, then walked the 4km from there up the mountain. Today I timed it perfectly: the rain had stopped and the sun peeked out occasionally as I soldiered up the winding roadway on the sidewalk. It’s a lovely, healthy walk, with little in the way of traffic noise or other urban audio clutter to distract from the solemn beauty of the green trees receding in rows towards the distant hills. The green mosses glow bright against the rocks so soon after the rains, lending a deep-woods feel to the walk as though the road is driven through the heart of the wilderness – I didn’t spot any deer today though.

The rain held off until well into the night, but as expected it lowered the temp enough outside that it was windows-closed for me. Soon enough, I'll be able to leave the windows open for weeks at a time, weather permitting, to let in that fresh 'mountain' air here... the lack of humidity here in BC is most welcome!