MeTube

while you're waiting

2007-01-03T06:47:00.000-05:00

While millions of you rest uneasily in anticipation of my new blog, here's a fascinating story via slashdot:
http://science.slashdot.org/science/07/01/02/2156201.shtml

France's space agency has decided to publish in a month from now it's data regarding UFO sightings over the past 30 years. The data includes 6000 sightings over the past 30 years. The story also mentions a United Airlines flight that saw a UFO over O'Hare, which at least 6 UA employees witnessed, which both UA officially denies, and the FAA will not investigate. I'm not a conspiracy theorist, but I can't help but wonder when I read things like this.

In a related topic, Gary McKinnon is a British 'hacker' who penetrated the (disgustingly insecure) NASA and US Dept. of Defence computers in order to prove the existence of UFOs. He does in fact claim to have seen UFOs in JPEGs on the government's servers. What gets me most though is how normal this guy is. If you listen to an interview, he's a smart, regular guy, who found out how weak government security really is, and used that weakness to satisfy his own curiosity. The U.S. government is of course making him out to be this terrorist hacker who destroyed 100s of millions of dollars worth of computers and data, when in fact he did nothing of the sort.

2006-12-01T18:54:00.000-05:00

Just to keep you guys up to date, I still plan on working on a new blog, but lately I just can't bring myself to do it. In the meantime, something of equal quality and insight,

this

Reinventing the Will

2006-11-13T00:35:00.000-05:00

It's been a slice, of, well something. In what's becoming my annual tradition of reinventing myself, I will be starting a new blog soon, hopefully before Christmas, perhaps after. It will be more focussed, which has been my intent for some time. Unlike my previous blog that needed immediate deletion (see my very first post for details), this one will remain up with a link to the new one.

It's official

2006-11-01T21:35:00.000-05:00

Everybody in the world now owns an iPod, including inanimate land formations resembling native chiefs. More info here.

2006-10-23T17:51:00.000-05:00

If you haven't purchased my Christmas present yet

2006-10-23T11:39:00.000-05:00

I'll take two of these. Not the Rocketman, just his rocket.

2006-10-20T20:10:00.000-05:00

Stories like this should be an embarassment to most Canadians, or at least anyone that voted in these politicians.

I've become increasingly annoyed with partisan cheerleading lately. I enjoy reading about politics, and whether you can find an unbiased source of news might be debatable. But I don't trust computer programmers that don't take responsibility for their own bugs, and similarly I won't read media that pointedly fails to lay blame on a deserving party, whichever party that may be.

So instead, I'll stick to topics like this tree, which has captured my attention in the past. It's along the shore of Lake Ontario, which is about a 15 minute walk from my house.

To get there, I walk down Roncesvalles Ave., until it ends at Queen. From there, I walk across a huge pedestrian bridge that goes over the Gardiner Expressway, a former commuting route of mine. This last picture shows you 6 lanes of the Gardiner, and you can just barely make out the 6 lanes which make up Lake Shore Boulevard. So, after crossing 12 lanes of traffic, I arrive on the shore of Lake Ontario.

Most people that have come out to visit me have experienced this walk.

Hairspray

2006-10-19T23:31:00.000-05:00

A few months ago, our neighborhood was transformed into a set for the movie Hairspray. Awkward streetcar routes aside, it was interesting to see how 5 blocks of store fronts were redone with various retro signs, often looking better than the real sign. Michelle Pfeifer, John Travolta, and Christopher Walken are some of the names in the upcoming movie. It will be really interesting to see our neighborhood on the big screen. I really hope Max's Gym made it into the movie; it's a well-preserved gym that's been around long enough to have kept the original sign for the shooting!

Cool Hunting

2006-10-15T00:23:00.000-05:00

I received a new iPod recently as a gift, and it can play videos. Cool Hunting has a pretty cool video podcast that I would highly recommend, even if you're not cool enough to watch it on an iPod. Visit the website, but be sure to download the latest 3 podcasts for random information on art, design, and technology.

I'm making a list

2006-10-10T19:03:00.000-05:00

It's time again to book my flight home for Christmas. I'll probably be home for about a week at the most, and I'm actually looking forward to spending some of my holiday time in Toronto this year; I usually rush home for the holidays, and rush back afterward, but I'm trying something a bit different this year.

Basically, it means that I won't see you, and that's because your a bad friend.

a brief history of time

2006-10-01T22:09:00.000-05:00

Some nights I sit down for an extended period, and craft a well-thought-out post. This will not be one of those nights.

Instead, I'll just spout randomly for the next few paragraphs about some things that have been on my mind recently.

I've wanted to write about my new job for quite some time. My thoughts on this subject are floating around in my mind in an unformed blob, and I won't try to force it out into a structured, earth-compatible figure, so I apologize if this seems a bit scattered.

Perhaps the best part of my job is it's location. Not only working downtown, but working in the coolest part of Toronto is amazing. I can stroll down Queen St. at lunch, in complete awe of my surroundings.

On the street level, I see people young and old with incredible style. Style that seems so incredibly stylish as to be completely impractical; the kind of clothing that probably can't be washed, and probably needs a seamstress (would that be seamperson? Josh? Oh, you don't read this. That's fine. No really, it's OK. It's just that I would appreciate your opinion on this part of my life, but really, it's OK. Steve reads it, anyway, and he probably tells you all about it, how amazing it is, etc. Right Steve?).

Loaded tour buses remind me daily of the fact that this city is bigger than I can comprehend. I just find it hard to believe that enough tourists come into Toronto every day to fill up the double-decker British tour buses.

Beyond the street level, I'm surrounded by skyscrapers. Towering, magnificent office buildings filled with people that take $20 taxi rides to and from work, and eat $20-$30 meals everyday.

Some of the people that I work with are aware of this, and some are not. My boss is definitely aware of this, he fits right into the downtown scene. He has probably done well, and enjoys himself accordingly. Along with the rest of the management, he eats out for lunch everyday. And why not: the mecca of all the incredible restaurants in Toronto happens to be in our neighborhood.

The Toronto International Film Festival wasn't too long ago, and it's impossible to get tickets, unless you can cough up $500 or so for a festival pass. Our entire office (about 10 people) were treated to 2 tickets each to the movie of our choice. I had only worked there for 3 weeks at this point. I later received 2 more tickets for a movie he couldn't attend.

Our office is also furnished with a cappucino machine, and very good coffee. Although I don't sit directly beside the windows as some do, the view from our office is great. One of the first things I noticed when I started work was the city noise; I can't get enough of it. Honking taxis, blaring sirens, it's what you'd expect in New York City. I have a break from this noise in the evening and weekends though, as my home is in a quiet neighborhood; I wouldn't want these sounds while I rest.

I could go on about the job, but in order to avoid the "customers seeing me in a Speedo" incident that caused the spawn of this new blog, I'll stop mixing work and pleasure right here.

I could also go on about the Film festival, but I'd feel pretentious, and would rather tell you in person so that you can tell by my body language that I'm not an ass. Let me just say this: red carpet watching aside, it's interesting to sit down in a theatre of 1500 people, and see the director come on stage and thank the group that just acquired the film a few hours ago, or to see the actors come on stage and talk about how they're anticipating the audience's audible reaction during the movie. We saw "Paris, Je t'aime" (sp?), and a Malaysian coming of age film whose title has slipped my mind.

A:F6

2006-09-30T22:51:00.000-05:00

Amazing. That's all I have to say about A:F6.

staying power

2006-09-27T17:33:00.000-05:00

When the Strokes first album "Is this it?" came out, it didn't leave my CD player for about 6 months. That's pretty long for a 30 minute album.

I always wondered if I had become obsessed with that album because it was a symbol for something more in my life, or if perhaps another album with just as much staying power would come along.

That question was answered in the form of Sufjan Stevens. I bought Illinois on a whim, based on a good review I read. After playing it a few times, I couldn't get into it. I tried it again a few weeks later, and started to enjoy it more each time. Now, nearly a year later, I have 3 of Sufjan's albums, all of which I still thoroughly enjoy.

Is This It enjoyed a 6 month dictatorship of my CD player, during which time all opposition was mercilessly crushed. Sufjan Stevens hasn't commanded the same rule over my CD player, but his incredible breadth and depth has led me to enjoy different songs of his at different periods of time for the last year, and I only own 3 of his CDs, I think there's at least 3 more that I have yet to hear.

If you haven't heard him, and are considering it, I urge you to buy Illinois. Like me, you may have to give it more than one chance.

2006-09-22T22:49:00.000-05:00

This pic obviously isn't here for artistic value.

There's a bookstore in Toronto doing a campaign with this picture, with the words "Don't read enough?"

I can't be sure, but I think this billboard is graffiti.

On the subject of billboards, there was another one near my house during the Gay Pride Parade that said "Behold, this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom" and then a hotmail address below it.

I think the christians who put that sign up broke through their stereotypical hateful attitude toward the gay community, and really reached out to the 1 million plus that came out that weekend. Really.

It's amazing how extremist sects of Christianity, Islam, and Judaism can be such a detrement to society, excusing otherwise inexcusable acts for the sake of a higher power. Does this only happen in Western religion?

2006-09-16T18:10:00.000-05:00

2006-09-12T21:06:00.000-05:00

an amazing canadian moment

2006-09-06T21:07:00.000-05:00

Whilst digging through YouTube to rediscover favorite television moments from my childhood (there is a plethora of Sesame Street skits and Vignettes from the National Filmboard), I think this has got to be one of the my favorites:

2006-09-06T18:00:00.000-05:00

This is the place

2006-09-02T11:29:00.000-05:00

2006-08-30T20:38:00.000-05:00

2006-08-21T18:45:00.000-05:00

2006-08-17T21:30:00.000-05:00

2006-08-14T17:21:00.000-05:00

2006-08-08T20:26:00.000-05:00

2006-08-06T21:15:00.000-05:00

It's not even 8:00 AM

2006-08-05T06:27:00.000-05:00

But I can't sleep any longer. Commuting has turned me into a morning person; that is, I can't sleep in, but I still wish I could.

Some of you have been asking for details about my new job. Without naming the company again and ending up with customers seeing me in my Speedo, let me just avoid using the name of the company.

First of all, the work that I will be doing now is mainly web development. The bread and butter of this new company is web content management; so for companies like law firms or NGOs that have a tonne of data to organize, they would contact us, and we'd provide a web interface to access and organize that data.

The exciting part about this position is that I will be doing the full spectrum of Software Engineering, and essentially have my own customers. I'll meet with them to do requirements analysis, design a solution, and take care of implementation, testing, and maintenance.

The second important part about this job is that it's downtown, near Spadina and Queen. For those of you out-of-towners, it's close to the CN Tower & Skydome, and a 5 minute walk to MuchMusic. See the map here. I'll be taking the subway or streetcar to work, which has actually been my dream for a long time.

I was nearly sold on the job when the CEO said during my interview, that they had been at a different location; but found that they couldn't get anything to eat at lunch, and that he wanted the office to clear out at lunch.

For those of you entering the job market for the first time, I'm convinced that the job market for Programmers and Software Engineers is booming right now, at least in Toronto. After re-working my Resume, I received 2 interview requests within 1 day of sending out my resume, and the first interview is the job I eventually accepted. Employers are willing to pay well above the average market salary for someone that they want to hire; I aimed at what I thought might be too high, and didn't even need to negotiate (which of course makes me feel that I should have aimed higher).

It's almost 11:00 PM

2006-07-31T21:49:00.000-05:00

And the temperature outside is 30 degrees. Factor in the humidity: 44. We're now in the peak summer months where it just doesn't cool off at night. I'm glad we own an air conditioner.

The nice thing about our neighborhood is that we're about a 15 minute walk from Lake Ontario, and the temperature seems to drop about 5 degrees near the lake.

This is too gay

2006-07-30T10:36:00.000-05:00

(that one's for you, Maso)

Who knew?

Michael Ignatieff wasn't the only politician showing his support; the only political group that I did not see was The Conservative Party. From what I could tell, the Green Party had the largest float.

I handn't intended to display Gay Pride Parade pictures the entire summer, but I haven't been able to take as many pictures as I had hoped this summer.

Rest assured, that's about to change.

Last Friday, I gave my notice in Waterloo, and two weeks from Monday I will start a new job in Toronto. It will be downtown, and I hope to figure out a way to take pictures either on my way to or from work, as I'll be taking the streetcar to work.

Gay Pride Highlights: part 1

2006-07-25T19:35:00.000-05:00

I've been meaning to finish off the gay pride pictures with a collection of the pictures that didn't make the highlight reel, but had very interesting subjects nonetheless. Here's part 1.

The mounties carrying the "Just Married" sign were actually imposters! I can only assume that the marriage between the two *real* gay mounties was huge news in the rest of Canada.

2006-07-22T12:46:00.000-05:00

2006-07-18T21:24:00.000-05:00

2006-07-13T18:47:00.000-05:00

2006-07-10T18:34:00.000-05:00

2006-07-08T08:56:00.000-05:00

2006-07-06T21:13:00.000-05:00

Obviously not camera shy, this guy was a great sport.

It's refreshing to find people that embrace the camera. In the few pictures I've taken around Roncesvalles, 1 person, who was nowhere near the picture I was trying to take, completely freaked out, going on about "You know how it is, it's like the paparazzi.." Another older man gave me a two minute lecture for asking to take a picture of him, ranting on about how 'this one guy had his camera smashed, and the judge ruled that it was ok...' Finally, I was threatened by someone who was forcing me to "delete" a picture I hadn't even taken of "that girl," who was nowhere to be seen. After 2 or 3 minutes of verbal assaults, physical threats, and mockery, I convinced him that I was merely trying to take a panning shot of a street car. Like the drop of a hat, he said "I'm sorry, I'm sorry sometimes I get so mad."

2006-07-04T20:05:00.000-05:00

2006-07-03T08:08:00.000-05:00

2006-07-02T10:14:00.000-05:00

2006-07-01T07:59:00.000-05:00

2006-06-30T17:59:00.000-05:00

For the next month or so, most of the pictures posted will be from this year's Gay Pride Parade. Bringing in more than a million people each year, this event has become a symbol of tolerance not just for gays, but anybody that doesn't fit into the regular social framework. It's a chance for people to express themselves without shame, and I hope to have captured that this year.

When to vote for a Republican

2006-06-27T17:42:00.000-05:00

A blogger in Utah will have to vote the Republican she has personally given the finger to on several occasions; because his opponent in the Republican primary, John D. Jacob, claims that Satan is preventing him from winning. To quote John D. Jacob himself: "when that gets out in the paper, I'm going to be one of the screw-loose people."

Like I said, Multiculturalism is broken

2006-06-26T17:31:00.000-05:00

CBC Radio's Ideas program, which is always fantastic, is doing a special on Multiculturalism, with a lecture from a UBC Prof. Like every weeknight, it's on at 9:05 PM, 99.1 in Toronto, AM 990 in Winnipeg, and 690 AM in Vancouver, or you can check their Frequency Guide here.

2006-06-25T10:01:00.000-05:00

This is Grenadier Pond, about 15 minutes from my house. It's stocked with Bass, and you'll usually find a few fishermen throwing in their lines in the morning.

2006-06-23T19:26:00.000-05:00

2006-06-22T18:48:00.000-05:00

2006-06-21T20:54:00.000-05:00

2006-06-20T21:14:00.000-05:00

So I've made the inevitable switch to Canon. For $150 (thanks, craigslist), I secured a 6 year old camera with auto-focus, Programmable mode, built-in flash, Shutter-priority mode, did I mention built-in flash? And these are just the settings that I've most longed for. My Minolta, which served this blog well until it's last day, was 25 years old (my age), and save for Aperture-priority, was purely manual. What was I thinking; it's just not worth it. I tried to be a purist, sticking with manual hardcore mode, but I now feel that my Minolta years were an impure waste of time performing mere manual labour. Film loading couldn't be easier with the new one, and I can see my aperture & shutter selection right in the view-finder. It's amazing what they've accomplished in the last 20 years.

Auto-focus, I can't get over it. $150, for a fantastic Canon Rebel 2000 EOS with a decent 28-90 mm lens. I'll make a note of my first pic to come from this camera.

2006-06-19T18:53:00.000-05:00

Happy Birthday Steve, you piece of trash.

2006-06-18T13:53:00.000-05:00

My camera died this weekend. The $2000 investment of Digital SLRs is still a year or two away for me, so I'll be looking into a "newer" SLR camera (mine is about 25 years old. Probably a mid-90s Canon with auto-focus and forward compatible lenses (EOS I think), for when I do switch to digital. Built-in flash would be nice.

I went to Henry's, which is a popular new & used camera store in Southern ON, and played around with some DSLRs. The biggest thing I'm currently missing out on was auto-focus, I couldn't get over how handy that is.

In 2000, Canon came out with a feature called ECF, which is Eye Controlled Focus. The camera tracks the movement of your eye, and focuses the lens on what you're looking at. Better keep it honest when taking pictures at the beach!

Terrorism in Canada

2006-06-12T18:44:00.000-05:00

As all of you know, a terrorist plot was uncovered recently in Southern Ontario. It's incredibly unfortunate for the millions of peaceful Canadian Muslims that a few extremist members of their religion can conjure up such a negative image of Islam. Our questionable presence in Afghanistan is likely what fueled the anger behind this plot. But leaving that debate for another day, I want to talk about immigration.

Canada prides itself on being a multi-cultural country. The mix of people can be quite beautiful, in urban areas like Toronto, it's fascinating to walk through different neighborhoods and experience so many cultures in one place.

Being an immigrant is something I struggle to comprehend. While my world travels are extremely limited, I was fortunate enough to spend a day in Amsterdam recently. Mentally, I could just feel how different things were. Sensually, there were new smells, sights, and sounds everywhere I went. From the train, I saw people biking through the country-side, the cliche image of a blonde-haired lady in a skirt, happily biking down a picturesque road with tiny houses on either side. Everyone rode bikes, everyone seemed happy, everything was incredibly different. As I left the train and met several Dutch citizens, my perception of the Dutch changed slightly. Yes, they are very liberal, and they do seem very friendly, but it really is a very different way of life. I didn't take it to be better or worse than Canada, just different. That difference was both fascinating and discomforting. It was fascinating to see something I had so often read about and pictured, to have many of my assumptions about society questioned (I'll get to the Dutch's marital beliefs/dis-beliefs another time).

Yet that same new-ness about everything made me feel very out of place. I just knew it would take years of living in such a different world to really feel at home, if I ever would at all. I'm quite sure that many immigrants coming from war-torn countries never truly grasp their new surroundings; whether they consciously refuse to adapt their worldview after immigrating, or whether their mind simply can't undo the injustices they've seen human beings commit, the point is that many immigrants do not assimilate well.

A tiny example of this comes from a week ago, when I was taking pictures around my new neighborhood. There was an old man (likely Polish in this neighborhood), sitting on a bench enjoying some fruit in the sun. He had pineapples, apples, watermelon, and bananas surrounding him, and I thought it would make a great picture. Being a courteous photographer, I asked whether he would mind if I took a picture of him. For the next 3 minutes, I was subjected to a rant about how it's illegal to take pictures of people, how someone once smashed a photographer's camera, and he won in court because it's illegal. I tried and failed to reason with him for a minute, asking him about public security cameras for one thing, but like what I've decided to be many old people do, he simply said "No, no," and re-iterated his point as if I hadn't brought up a counter-point.

This is a polish neighborhood, and it's reasonable to assume he was born in Poland, and judging by his accent, lived a reasonable amount of his life there. This man may have seen terrible, terrible things in his life. His inner portrait of the common person may be extremely different than that of mine; if I had encountered nazi soldiers in my life, I may not thank the local McDonald's clerk for his services either.

Stay with me, I'm getting to it.

Many immigrants take issue with the North American lifestyle. It's usually the religious immigrants who are offended by the liberal lives we appear to lead. But the idea of multi-culturalism is to celebrate these differences. We may make different choices, but as long as we all place ourselves within the justice system and respect each other's choices, we should be able to co-exist.

But if more and more of the fundamentally conservative immigrants move in, where does the majority end up? The Dutch have had to ask these hard questions recently. It is estimated that the majority of children under 14 in Holland's three largest cities are "Non-Western," most of those being Muslim. These muslims are not integrating with the liberal Dutch culture; they despise it. The majority of the muslim children born in the Netherlands marry someone from their ancestral country, and the Islamic immigrants are populating at a much higher rate than the Dutch.

If muslims are projected to make up the majority in the three largest cities of The Netherlands, and they are opposed to dutch culture; then it naturally follows that the Dutch culture will be lost. The government is well aware of this, and has taken some drastic steps in an effort to preserve the Dutch culture, starting with kicking out 26,000 refugees who had failed in their attempts to claim official refugee status.

Macleans has an in-depth article on the "Backlash against Islam," and discusses more about Holland's pro-active plan, including an "integration test" that an estimated 500,000 Dutch citizens may have to take. Some new immigrants will be required to watch videos which portray topless women, and gay men kissing, and clearly inform the viewer that if they have any problems with this, they are not welcome.

I can't help but wonder, if the Islamic immigrants in Holland are populating at exponential rates relative to Dutch citizens, and yet continue to refuse the Dutch culture, what is their reason for moving to Holland? The simple fact that they are populating at exponential rates, and need natural resources? Is it really for the best if Dutch culture becomes mostly congruent to that of Pakistan?

You don't have to go very far in Toronto, Vancouver, Winnipeg, or any other Canadian city to see the beautiful cultures represented by Canadian immigrants that have adapted to our culture. I say adapted to, they haven't necessarily assimilated, but they've found a way to express themselves in society within the laws of our country, and function successfully in our economy. Isn't that the least we can ask for?

3 days ago, I was dropping off a member of my carpool near a subway station on Bloor. I pulled the car into the parking lot of a high-rise building just off the street, and my co-worker left the car. As I was turning around to leave the parking lot, a car squealed out of a parking spot behind me, and parked next to the entrance of the building. The driver of the car, a young man of Eastern descent, jumped out of the car, which was still running, and ran as fast as he could out of the parking lot and across the street between the traffic, where he got into another car. Starting to panic, I tried in vain to leave the parking lot, away from this parked car, but the street was far too busy to get anywhere. As I frantically glanced around, I noticed the man sauntering back to his car, he had forgotten his lunchbox in his boss's car. A week ago, I may have assumed as much. What did *you* think his intentions were?

2006-06-06T19:39:00.000-05:00

2006-06-05T21:08:00.000-05:00

2006-06-02T21:28:00.000-05:00

Kamshots style. During my European travels, I found myself in the home town of one of my favorite photobloggers, so I tried to take a picture using his signature composition technique.

2006-06-01T20:39:00.000-05:00

2006-05-31T18:25:00.000-05:00

Among the many interesting differences between Canada and England, one that I find the oddest is that in place of Exit signs, you'll see either a "Way Out" sign, as pictured here, or an even odder 3-part comic of a running stick man, an arrow, and a rectangle representing a doorway.

2006-05-30T19:24:00.000-05:00

How to move

2006-05-28T19:09:00.000-05:00

I've moved a few times now, and I'd like to document the following random facts about moving. I'll likely forget them, so be a good friend and point out the following to me the next time I move:

Canada Post offers an Address Change Service, which forwards mail from your old address to a new one for 6 months. Then, letters mailed to your old address come to the new one with a sticker on them, and you can then make a point of calling those businesses. The last time I moved, there was a huge pile of mail waiting for me that was thrown out when the current occupant moved in (what a dick). This is a $30 fee that makes the address change seamless.

U-Haul truck rentals are sketchy. The truck itself was fine, but the outlet I visited was poorly managed. I booked online, and I was only allowed to choose the day of the move, not the specific hours. I spent a lot of time on hold trying to reach them. When I arrived at the garage, it seemed that choosing the truck and the hours I wanted online was a waste, they asked me the same questions when I got there anyway.

Toronto kicks ass. My neighborhood is cool, and you'll be able to experience it with the pictures I post this summer, taken from my 'painfully analog' SLR.

Overall the move went well, thanks for asking TH.

2006-05-26T20:43:00.000-05:00

2006-05-25T23:49:00.000-05:00

2006-05-24T20:14:00.000-05:00

2006-05-23T18:05:00.000-05:00

interesting MSN hack

2006-05-18T20:16:00.000-05:00

I'm using MSN Messenger Live Beta, but I think this should work with any version of Messenger. Add encarta@conversagent.com to your friends list, and start asking questions.

RP says:
What's the population of Steinbach?
Encarta® Instant Answers says:
There are 9,227 people in Steinbach, Canada.
RP says:
what was the population of Steinbach in 1981?
Encarta® Instant Answers says:
8,213 people lived in Steinbach, Canada in 1981.

Jack the Ripper walk

2006-05-18T18:32:00.000-05:00

My European Travels: Part II

2006-05-17T17:51:00.000-05:00

This is the continuation of Part I.

Returning to the airport, I decided that I would give the online hotel finder near the payphones a try.

I need to be very clear about how incredibly shitty this machine was. It had a touch-screen interface, which would normally make things easier. But this one in particular had to be hit very hard. It took a solid pecking of the finger to click the mouse. It gets much, much worse. When you're hitting the screen that hard with your finger, it's impossible to be precise. A normal touch-screen only requires a light tap, which means you can use the tip of your finger, and be precise about it. But slamming your finger into a glass screen means that you're hitting it with about a square inch of skin, so the exact spot that you click on is a seemingly random point within that square inch. All of this is still acceptable though. Slamming my finger into the approximate square inch of the button I actually *want* to click is still reasonably acceptable. But for some incredibly annoying reason, the point at which you smash your finger is approximately 2 inches above the point where the mouse is clicked. So now, as you're ramming your hand into a sheet of glass, you have to aim about two inches high. And in case you're wondering, the last screen did not have nice big buttons, but rather a list of text-sized hyperlinks that made things even more of a gamble.

After successfully jamming my finger into "Amsterdam" twice, I realized that the machine was actually so slow to search, that by the time it started printing it's search results, it's 'idle timeout' was reached, so it thought I had left the machine, and went back to the beginning. Since I'm a nerd, I overcame this small hitch by ramming my finger into random corners of the screen while it sat there trying to search.

This story is literally too long to tell, so let me just switch to point form:

The finger-busting machine which was probably sponsored by a chiropractor eventually found a hotel for me, located in "Warden, Amsterdam."

"Warden, Amsterdam" is like saying "Steinbach, Winnipeg." But the cab-driver drove the 50 minute drive anyway.

"Warden, Amsterdam" does not have cab service in the morning, so after driving 50 minutes, we decided we should probably just head back.

Somewhere between midnight and 2:30 in the morning, hotels decide that empty rooms are empty rooms, and start giving them out.

2 hour taxi ride wasn't cheap, ask my company. Specifically, ask the guy who didn't book my hotel room ahead of time, *ahem*

At about 2:30 AM, I climbed into bed. The hotel manager knew that I had to wake up at 5:00 AM, and programmed a wake-up call.

I slept through the wake-up call. Actually, I picked up the phone and hung it up, without waking up, according to the hotel manager.

The hotel manager was nice enough to bang on my window

At 5:15 AM, I arrived at the train station, with minutes to spare to catch my 5:30 AM train.

I eventually arrived at the customer's site. It's a train tunnel currently being built, so it was basically a construction site. Very dusty, and there was no water, which everyone seemed OK about, they had their coffee and their cigarettes, why would they need anything else?

I didn't have a lunch along, and no, there wasn't anything nearby. My 'host' gave me a sandwich from his lunchbox. It was two slices of brown bread with a 1" slice of pepperoni in each corner. No sauce of any kind.

Back on the train after a long but successful day. Watching the countryside, everyone was riding around on bikes with big wheels and round handlebars, smiling with their blonde-hair waving in the wind.

Several trains and a flight later, with no leisure time in between, I arrive at Heathrow at about 9:30 PM local time. I look at the bus schedule, figure out my quickest path back to Birmingham, and board the Heathrow Rail Air Express, which again is neither rail nor air, but a bus.

At my connection point in Oxford, England 1 hour later, I realize that the last train to Birmingham left an hour ago. I am now stuck in Oxford. Birmingham is a 150 Pound cab ride away, or more than US$300. So, I resign myself to a hotel in complete disgust. For the record, the first hotel I went to was full. The second one was insanely cheap; there was no phone in my room.

The next day, I took a train back to Birmingham. As one last kick in the ass, there was a circuit problem on the tracks, and I was delayed an hour. Then, after the 1 hour delay, we found out that a freight train had made it's way in front of us, and we'd be finishing the rest of the trip at half speed.

All in all, I'm glad to have had the opportunity to have gone to Europe, and I learned a few things the hard way.
p.s. The British food I had actually was in fact quite bad, but I had some incredibly amazing French food.

My European Travels: Part I

2006-05-16T21:16:00.000-05:00

Alright, I'm back from my world tour. Thanks to all the fans that supported me. In summary, I was flown out to the UK to help with a tradeshow. While out there, it made sense for me to visit a customer's site for whom I had written some custom software. The tradeshow was in Birmingham, England, and since this was my first trip to Europe, we planned a 2-day stop in London before starting the tradeshow. During the 2-day visit, I did the Jack the Ripper walk among other things, and I'll post a few pictures I took, though I'm very displeased with almost all of the pictures I took.

The customer's site just so happened to be in Amsterdam. The scheduled trip was very tight, but if everything went well at the customer's site, I'd have about an hour to check out the city.

I left the tradeshow early in the afternoon, and started my lonesome travels. My first train left from near the tradeshow in Birmingham, and stopped at Reading Station. From there, I transferred to the Heathrow Rail Air Express, which is neither Rail nor Air, but a bus that travels straight to Heathrow airport. The bus driver, glancing at my itinerary, noted that my flight would depart from terminal 1.

I'm sure he meant well. Walking into Terminal 1 with a dead cell phone, I scrounged the entire place for a battery booster, which *someone* promised would definitely be available. After finding nothing, and with just under two hours before my flight boarded, I decided to phone Cristine. We chatted for roughly 20 minutes, and about 80 minutes later, I decided I might as well do the check-in process.

Sauntering over to British Airways, I asked where I could check in for the flight to Amsterdam. A panicked look washed over the attendant's face, as she explained that I needed to be at Terminal 4.

"Go straight there. Don't wait in any queues, just go right to the front. Go, now."

OK, so they must like people checking in early, I thought. I followed the signs to Terminal 4, which for starters meant sprinting across the bulk of Terminal 1, down some escalators, up some more, and eventually arriving at an elevator. I took this elevator down to the never-ending hallway, which led to a tunnel. This was a subway tunnel which would take me to terminal 4. Ten minutes later, the subway arrived, and another 10 minutes later, I arrived at Terminal 4. Sprinting across another never-ending hallway, I located the check-in counter, checked-in, and started the run to my gate. I cannot describe how disgustingly far this gate was, but let me just say that the flight from Heathrow to Amsterdam must be one of the least popular flights on Tuesday evenings.

I arrived at my gate with 10 minutes to spare; the whole race took just over 1 hour. Later, on the flight, the in-flight magazine noted the following caution: "If you are connecting at Terminal 1 with a departing flight at Terminal 4, please give yourself 75 minutes to reach your gate."

Well, I had made the flight, and now I had time to relax and think about how to cram in an hour of pictures in Amsterdam. I was to arrive at 11:00, and so perhaps I could take some pictures of the Red Light district at night...

11:05, and I'm walking through the Amsterdam airport. I was told to go to Hotel IBIS, but I see no signs, so I resort to one of those big switchboards where you just push a button to speak to someone at the hotel.

Hotel 1

Do you have reservations with us, Sir?

No.

Sorry, we are fully booked.

Hotel 2

Do you have reservations with us, Sir?

No.

Sorry, we are fully booked.

...

Hotel 15

Do you have reservations with us, Sir?

No.

Sorry, we are fully booked.

I tried every hotel on the switchboard! With nothing available, and trying to quickly out-think the 10 or so others in my predicament walking the same paths, I ran up to a hotel information desk.

Do you have anything available just for tonight?

Sorry, I don't know of anything in the city of Amsterdam.

It's now 12:00. Panicking, I phoned someone staying in Birmingham who had internet access to try Expedia and the usuals. With two idiots standing beside me trying to out-smoke each other, 20 minutes of online searches was all I could wait on the phone for; I hung up and searched onward.

Walking to the front of the taxi line-up outside the airport, I asked the cab driver to consult his list of hotels. After checking the usual hotels, followed by his insider guys, and then some new hotels which nobody really knew about yet, he was amazed, and agreed with me: there really were no hotels in Amsterdam tonight.

It was now 12:30 AM. I had to catch a train at 5:00 AM. My dead cel phone meant I couldn't simply sleep on a bench in the airport and use my phone's alarm-clock, I needed an alarm clock, or better yet, given how tired I would be, a wake-up call.

Heading back into the airport, I had to decide whether to buy a few cups of coffee and just stay awake, or make a last-ditch effort with an online hotel finder.

to be continued...

i'll be gone for a while

2006-05-03T22:19:00.000-05:00

I'm leaving for the UK tomorrow. I get back to Toronto in 8 days, but only a few hours after landing, I board a plane to Winnipeg. Until then, no diving allowed.

I've joined the New York Marathon

2006-05-01T21:29:00.000-05:00

No I haven't.

But in a slightly related topic, I climbed the steps to the CN Tower last Saturday. This story is probably best told in timeline format:

Saturday
--------

6:00 AM Alarm clock wakes me up

6:15 AM I finally get out of bed

6:30 AM I'm on the subway

7:00 AM At the CN Tower; the jog from the subway station has left me breathless

7:30 AM Registration/etc is finished, I'm now in line

7:45 AM Security scan lineup

7:59 AM I hit the first of 1776 stairs, the largest metal staircase on earth

8:00 AM Jogging was a bad idea, let's try a brisk walk

8:05 AM Me: "Did that guy just say 3/4 of the way?" I can do this!

Climber1: No, 1/4 of the way

Climber2: They usually exaggerate, we're about 1/5th of the way.

8:09 AM I take a 1 minute break. Each flight of stairs has a landing which is wide enough to rest on and still allow people to pass. The air is incredibly thin, I'm breathing as hard as I can but it's not helping. Finally, I decide that my breathing won't improve anyway, so I light up a cigarette. Halfway through the cigarette, alright just kidding, I obviously didn't smoke.

8:10 AM Start up the stairs again. I'm currently on flight 88. I estimate that I'm at the halfway point (there were about 150 of them, not a bad estimate if I do say so myself). I feel claustrophobic now, because the bottom is now just as far as the top, and I can't breathe. I grab a kid by the neck, and start beating the shit out of her. Halfway through the beating, fine, I didn't kick anyone's ass either.

8:17 AM I just heard the medic on the next flight of stairs tell someone that there's about 20 flights of stairs left. I can do this!

8:18 AM Is that angels I hear? Have I climbed the tower of Babel? No, it must be the guys stamping time cards and giving out water!

8:19 AM 20 minutes and 41 seconds after I started, I reach the top. At least that's what they've told me. In reality though, my time card may be stamped, but I am now on a different set of stairs, 8 more flights before I reach what is really considered the top, the viewing balcony. A cheering section awaits me as I ascend the final staircase, but interestingly enough, the cheering dies down almost completely as I approach. Who the fuck paid these fucking University of Toronto Arts students to do the cheering anyway? Any Science student would realize that whether it's a large group of people coming through the door (as was the group in front of me), or a few people in a row (in my case), a certain amount of cheering must always be done. Screw you, shitty cheering section, I climbed this tower, give me my water, and don't forget the pickles on my next cheeseburger.

8:24 AM The view from the CN tower was interesting. That's a generous statement after you've looked down from the Empire State Building. I'm not comparing The Big Apple with The Big Orange (?) here. As insanely amazing as Manhattan is, I wasn't expecting the same vast array of skyscrapers from the CN Tower. But they have an annoying mesh fence around the entire balcony, so your view is somewhat obstructed. At the Empire State Building, I was worried about dropping my camera when I changed film; no mesh. Unbeknownst to me, the CN Tower is about 600 feet higher than the Empire State Building, and was about 350 feet higher than the twin towers.

8:30 AM I take the elevator down, and no, climbing the stairs down wasn't an option. The climb was scheduled from 6:00 AM to 12:00 PM, and when I get down, the lines are incredibly long, and I'm glad that I woke up early.

I haven't smoked in 8 days, and I've ran nearly every day to keep my mind off of it. I can't say that I'll never smoke a cigarette again though, because when I return home for the weekend in two weeks, I can name several people who I'd like to share a cigarette with. I've broken the physical addiction I think, but I still think that sharing a cigarette with one of my friends would be more enjoyable than not having one.

I don't know if I'll ever change that mindset. Perhaps if I were training for a marathon..

2006-05-01T19:12:00.000-05:00

2006-04-28T17:05:00.000-05:00

2006-04-26T19:02:00.000-05:00

Faile

2006-04-25T19:39:00.000-05:00

2006-04-24T22:40:00.000-05:00

Neil Young

2006-04-20T22:34:00.000-05:00

A month or two ago, Cristine surprised me with a ticket to see a Neil Young flick playing in theatres, titled "Heart of Gold." It's a live concert that he did recently, playing some stuff from his new album 'Prairie Winds' as well as some of his classics; I definitely recommend this movie.

My brother has been a long-time fan of Neil Young's, but I used to find the high-pitched vocals irritating. I'd like to think that my taste in music has improved in the past few years, and I now look forward to re-discovering his plethora of albums, hopefully in chronological order. It's always enjoyable to get into someone when they've already done several albums; and with more than 40 solo albums under his belt, I should have ample enjoyment.

Anyone who doesn't enjoy his music though, has to give him credit for this. At age 61, he's definitely more punk than 99% of the new-school 'punk bands' that have clogged the airwaves in the past 5 years.

2006-04-20T17:43:00.000-05:00

Golden Looney

2006-04-19T18:37:00.000-05:00

ESQ

2006-04-18T19:22:00.000-05:00

STAGE

2006-04-17T20:35:00.000-05:00

more pics from Toronto

2006-04-17T18:36:00.000-05:00

As soon as Blogger gets their shite (site) together.

I've become fascinated with Graffiti, especially stenciled Graffiti. I often browse the Faile pictures at streetsy, and I was fascinated to find a Faile stencil in Toronto's Kensington Market. I took a picture, and I'll post it along with some others that I took this weekend as soon as blogger allows me.

now where did I park

2006-04-12T20:14:00.000-05:00

Anyone who knows me well knows that my short-term memory is amazingly weak. If you ask me what I did yesterday, you'll be waiting at least 5 seconds for my response. But rest assured I'll fill in the time gap with "Yesterday.. today is Wednesday, what did I do Tuesday..." At that moment my brain has had enough time to make the appropriate connection.

When walking out of a grocery store, I rely purely on intuition when finding my car, unless I parked near a landmark, such as a grocery cart shelter. But landmarks are hard to come by in parking lots, so I follow my instinct.

While in the grocery store, I find myself rattling off items that I know I need, because I'm scanning my brain, thinking of what I do each day (shampoo my hair, brush teeth, eat breakfast, pack a lunch, supper, night lunch.. 'Oh, I'm out of cereal' ...)

I have complete faith that if I were to park my car, walk into the grocery store, slip, hit my head, and walk out of the store an amnesiac, my well-trained instinct would lead me to the exact spot my car was parked in.

This isn't to say that I have abnormally good instinct regarding this sort of thing, it simply proves that part of my subconscious has actually grown to compensate for my memory.

I'm truly fascinated by people who talk about "that bad rainstorm we had in '93," or "spring break '89." I find myself shying away from commenting on the warm winter we had, because I simply don't remember how cold the last winter was. Come to think of it, this isn't just a poor short-term memory I'm dealing with, it's my memory in general. But maybe I already knew that.

This wasn't as pronounced while I was in Steinbach. Familiar people, familiar places; I knew the weather patterns and could picture most areas of town.

But I've got to say, there's something exciting about walking into a large parking lot, and having a feeling that I should walk 'that way.' The downside is, you may read this same post a year from now.

for the nature lovers

2006-04-05T20:02:00.000-05:00

It looks as though a pair of bald eagles forgot to turn their webcam off. The nest contains two eggs, due to hatch at the end of this month.

One more thing

2006-04-03T23:28:00.000-05:00

I have one more thing to say tonight. Life is much more enjoyable when you're not the first person there. And if you're friends are coming around to pick you up at 8:00, stay on the couch until you hear the doorbell.

Alright fine

2006-04-03T19:23:00.000-05:00

I'm in a writer's slump, if you will. You won't? Well then I'll tell you what I've been up to.
Cristine and I have a place in Toronto, it's around here.

It's in a very cool neighborhood, so look forward to some cool pictures this summer. Not just because of the neighborhood, but living in Toronto in general will be great for pictures.

I look at this blog as sort of a connection to my friends back home, and perhaps that's why I sometimes find it hard to write. Friends are made on common grounds, and when that common ground starts to slip; friendships naturally become increasingly distant.

Sometimes I get frustrated when people won't leave Steinbach. Moving away is incredibly tough; but if you look at it objectively; there is such a huge world out there. If you died, and for the sake of argument, say that heaven existed and you went there, what would you tell people?

"Well, I lived in Steinbach, Manitoba. Most people haven't heard of it, and the only work around there was in factories, but my parents lived nearby."

I have nothing against Steinbach of course, I love and miss the place. But I won't be spending my summer holidays there anymore, I need to move on.

Like a Fox

2006-03-23T19:03:00.000-05:00

Bill O'Reilly was on David Letterman a month or two ago, and Letterman put him on the spot about the poor quality of Fox News broadcasts. Amazingly and very disappointingly, Letterman said he didn't know why Fox News was "crap," he just knew. I can't blame Letterman for not watching Fox News, but I don't have to look any further than the local paper (their online edition is weak) to find plenty of good examples of how extremely right-wing and subjective these guys are.

The following quotes were made regarding the Iraq War, when it began in early 2003.

"I will bet you the best dinner in the gaslight district of San Diego that military action will not last more than a week. Are you willing to take that wager?" - Bill O'Reilly, Fox News, Jan 29, 2003

"It won't take weeks. You know that, professor. Our military machine will crush Iraq in a matter of days and there's no question that it will... There's no way. There's absolutely no way. They may bomb for a matter of weeks; try to soften them up as they did in Afghanistan. But once the United States and Britain unleash, it's maybe hours. They're going to fold like that." - Bill O'Reilly, Fox News, February 10, 2003

And that's just Bill O'Reilly, the ignorance is abundant at Fox News:

"Over the next couple of weeks when we find the chemical weapons this guy was amassing, the fact that this war was attacked by the Left and so the Right was so vindicated, I think, really means that the Left is giong to have to hang its head for three or four more years." - Dick Morris, Fox News, April 9, 2003.

It's not the right-sided nature of people like Bill O'Reilly that bothers me, it's the predictable flag-waving copout that's resorted to whenever anyone questions the president. From the video clip: "This simplistic stuff... [saying] 'he lied', and other stuff, does the country no good." We don't have to look any further than Bush's Democratic predecessor to find an important example of dishonesty, only then it was the Right that was pushing the questions.

The Strokes

2006-03-20T22:27:00.000-05:00

The Strokes are doing an impressive Canadian Tour this spring. I've secured 4 sweet tickets for their show in Toronto. They're making a stop in Winnipeg, so keep your eye on ticketmaster.

More info on my movie creator

2006-03-15T20:23:00.000-05:00

As requested, here's some more details on my yet-to-be-named movie creator.

Basically, I think that making hand-drawn movies/animations should be as easy as drawing a picture in Microsoft Paint.

The goal would be to allow you to select from a few basic shapes, such as lines, rectangles, and circles, as well as the option of adding images (JPEGS, Bitmaps, etc) for backgrounds. Ideally, you'd draw the first frame, hit next, add to the frame, move things around, hit next, continue until finished. Then hit play, and you have your animation.

One feature that would make things even more interesting would be to show a transparent view of the last frame in the current frame, so that you'd have to redraw each frame individually, but with a visual reference to the last frame that wouldn't show up when you play the movie back. This would lead to seemingly stationary objects that dance around throughout the movie, such as the effect in Waking Life, which I hope you've seen.

I'd make the source code available, and I might even make a Sourceforge project out of it if there were a few other developers interested.

The contents of the movie files would likely in XML format, and the movies would have to be played back through this program, unless enough people bitch, and I'm willing to compile the movies into executables (.exe files).

Any additional features/suggestions are welcome. I'd also like to find a place to host the files, but short of opening a GMail account for everyone to login to and download from, there must be some free file hosting services, right?

anyone interested?

2006-03-14T23:18:00.000-05:00

I've been thinking about writing a little program to make simple movies. Basically, I'd like to be able to make very short animations in the simplest way possible. It'd be like Microsoft Paint, only you'd be able to draw several frames, and play them back as a movie.

If you're interested, please email me. If at least one other person would make movies, I'll write it. The movies would have to be played back through this little player, but if enough people are doing it, I'll add the ability to compile the movies into an executable, so that you can just send the .exe to people to play it.

What's up? Great to see you. (Pause)

2006-03-13T20:53:00.000-05:00

The Oxford Muse is a charitable foundation in Oxford, England, whose goal is to invite people to go beyond superficial, everyday chitchat, and to develop fascinating conversations not only with the people you see everyday, but with complete strangers.

There's an interesting half-hour interview with the founder of this project available through the Radio Netherlands website.

Various projects and initiatives have been taken by this group, producing interesting conversations (referred to as Portraits) with people ranging from homeless people to university professors (who sometimes differ only slightly in appearance). You can "a-muse" yourself with some of these portraits here.

2006-03-13T18:54:00.000-05:00

Near Bloor & Windermere, Toronto.

2006-03-09T20:05:00.000-05:00

2006-03-08T20:36:00.000-05:00

That's not even possible!

2006-03-07T19:57:00.000-05:00

I won't even try this because it'd be a disgrace to such an honorable act.

Check out the square corners on that shirt when she's done.

Lamp post

2006-03-07T00:17:00.000-05:00

a bit of downtime

2006-03-06T21:32:00.000-05:00

Some of you may have noticed that this blog was unavailable for a day or so. I notified blogger, and they fixed the problem immediately, I'm not really sure what happened.
Now, my own computer seems to have taken one in the steel, so until I get my CDROM drive working I can't upload any of the pictures I took last weekend.

I don't like friends

2006-03-01T22:54:00.000-05:00

Phoebe: Today is Mike and my one-year anniversary.
Rachel: OH! What's it the anniversary of? First date? First kiss? First time you had sex?
Phoebe: Yeah!

There are many, many reasons not to watch friends. Pathetic grammar aside, it's a show with a bunch of good looking actors with dialog serving no higher purpose than to setup the next 7-second-interval of punchlines.

If I told you that Cristine and I were celebrating our anniversary, why the hell would you ask what occasion the anniversary marked? Whenever I see this show, my instinct is to think that I could easily write something funnier. But, as my music collection and movie-going will show, my tastes are much more refined than the general public. I'm being sarcastic, but I'm easily bored with blockbuster movies, and the only radio I listen to is CBC, so my taste is, at the least, eccentric. This was an incredibly successful show, but to me it just doesn't fire the right neurons.

I don't watch Friends, but TBS flaunts the commercials for this show like they're trying to cover the millions of dollars it must cost to syndicate it.

I rarely change the channel on a commercial break; but when I do, I follow a one minute time-limit. There's nothing that bothers me more than missing the first 30 seconds after a commercial break. After I've been away from the channel for approximately 60 seconds, I return to it posthaste, with plenty of time to find out if Elaine has heard of shrinkage, and how she'll respond to George's shrinkage problem.

Regressing from passive agression

2006-02-27T23:25:00.000-05:00

I've always taken a somewhat passive-aggressive approach to transactions with the service industry.

Yes, I'll have fries with that.

Not a combo? That's OK, I'll pay the extra dollar.

WHY DID I PAY AN EXTRA DOLLAR FOR THESE COLD FRIES?!

But a few years ago while working my way through University, I began to take note of which customers received the best service from me. Grumble about the price of a wireless router, and I won't mention the fact that people driving past your house can browse your files if you don't turn on encryption (that could be another blog post, open routers in Steinbach). Ask me honestly about the price, and I'll be more than delighted to look for an in-store coupon.

Not surprisingly, the best customers were the ones with an assertive yet friendly attitude.

Last summer, I was playing tennis with MJ when, amazingly, my two-month old racket folded like I had just served a shot-put (and no, I never smash my rackets). After a discussion with my friend Marc at work the next day, he filled me in on rule #1:

Take names.

Whenever you're dealing with any service representative, no matter if you think there's going to be a problem or not, write down their name. Make them repeat the slurred name that came before "Thank you for calling Pizza Pizza have you heard about our $10 Mega deal?" As soon as you take their name, and especially before it gets heated and they have the option of giving you a pseudonym, it separates you from the idiots they deal with everyday; you're humanizing them. And if you end up speaking to a manager, having the name of the employee you dealt with, and the time and date you dealt with them lets them know that you're not just looking for a 5% discount.

The sales reps at the sports store didn't take me very seriously. A guy comes in with a racket that looks like it was backed over by a car, and he wants a new one. I actually heard restrained laughter behind me at one point, but I kept my calm, because I had names, and knew that starting anything with these non-managers could only worsen the situation.

But a week later, when I finally spoke directly to the manager, I told him about the empty promises of a replacement racket that had yet to arrive. It was nearing the end of summer and no stock was coming in. But I gave him the names of the salesmen, the times I had spoken with them, and told him,

calmly,

that I expected better service from his store. Rather than bitching about his inconsiderate employees, or his failure as their supervisor, I was able to keep my cool. Had I kicked up a fuss and yelled, he would then be forced to swallow his pride if he were going to give me what I want, which is something that, understandably so, many retail managers won't do.

A few months ago, my rear wiper was frozen to my back window, and I somehow managed to snap not the wiper but the shaft connecting it to the motor. I went to Acura, and discussed the matter with the service attendant.

I've never seen one of these break; we don't even stock them because they don't break. It's not covered on warranty.

Alright. I really like the car, and I've done all of my service in your garage, but I'm just not sure I want to pay for something that is never supposed to break. Who can I speak to about warranty? (My car is only about 16 months old).

Six weeks later, after much

persistence,

my $300 wiper motor was replaced free of charge.

where have you been?

2006-02-22T21:48:00.000-05:00

I don't know about you, but I was on a last-minute trip to the Mid-western U.S.

It was another one of my pseudo-business trips. I only say pseudo because I am not a business man, but I have to pretend to be.

This particular client is a large one, and thus very important to our company. It was a trip to the outskirts of a fairly large city, filled with business "parks", four lane highways, strip malls, and suburban blah.

Although I prefer to take only those trips which have mostly technical goals for our company, there's always an element of salesmanship required of me.

I was a horrible salesman at an electronics store during University. Young guys new to the work force, and new to a full-time-job-sized paycheque would come in for the big screen TVs. They weren't interested in the technical details, or even the quality, but only "Will it fit into my Chevette?" and "is this the biggest one you have?"

I just couldn't bring myself to sign them up for a corporate credit card, take 2 years to pay, here's your free t-shirt, etc.

But this is an entirely different ball game. The guys I'm dealing with are at the peak of their careers; power lunches, short haircuts, and nice company cars. If (when) our company grows, we'll be sending similar Type A corporate soldiers to battle, but until then, they'll get the type G computer Geek who never played football and wears a mouthguard to sleep.

C.Y. and N.Y.

2006-02-16T23:53:00.000-05:00

Cristine's first day in NYC. By the time we left, it was t-shirt weather.

this is worth a medal

2006-02-16T00:08:00.000-05:00

let's start censoring the internet

2006-02-15T22:11:00.000-05:00

http://www.ohmythatsawesome.com/2006/02/oh_my_god.html

help me find something...

2006-02-13T22:15:00.000-05:00

I'm somewhat of an Internet Explorer Favorites nazi. When I find an interesting blog or website, I'll add it to my Favorites, but if it doesn't hold my interest enough to read everyday, I'll end up deleting it.

Here's what I'm missing from my increasingly well-rounded list of daily blogs:

A junior high or early high-school-aged female blogger. Before your mind starts wandering, I simply think it'd be hilariously fascinating to get a daily dosage of "...and oh my gosh Kevin sat beside me in Science today and I thought I was going to die..." This goes on the assumption that you don't have to be a nerd to be a blogger, is that a safe one?

A junior high or early high-school-aged male blogger, preferrably one who isn't on the volleyball team, smokes cigarettes, and gets invited to good parties. Having parents that pay for a camera-phone would certainly tip the scales.

I'll keep you posted on my findings.