Nooo Yar!

Ah we about to roll into '08. The twenty-first century is well on it's way and still no flying car! Maybe next year.

Much like Capa I'm not making any resolutions this year. I already started running (and lost twelve pounds and probably converted some more from fat to muscle) this year. that's about all I need really. Of course with the thousands making resolutions to start working out the gym is going to be a friggin' zoo for the next six weeks but I'll cope. New eye-candy after all...

However, I do have to get the hell outta dodge when my lease is up. It'll be worth the $2000 I'll have to spend (extra month's rent and moving expenses) to get a decent night's sleep. It's not so much a resolution as an act of a desperate sleep-deprived man.

So tonight it's myself, a take-away Pepper Beef bowl, a bottle of Stoli and the new director's cuts of The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (and of course, the Geek) and my all-time favorite, Blade Runner - The Final Cut.

And because I'm single, maybe spend the Christmas money Grandma gave me on (NSFW) something special for my own self.

Thanks Grandma!

Addendum: The new smoking law goes into effect as of midnight. This basically means that yo can't smoke within 5 meters of a door (before it was three). Also it tchnically means that I can't smoke on my balcony (at least as I read it, IANAL) as it is less than five meters from my door. So if any of the 60+ year old bylaw enforcement officers can actually climb up four stories to hand me the ticket I'll pay it.

Sock it to Me!

Well, the whole Christmas show is over and I have plenty of socks. No shock, I guess but overall it was nice but it is also over which is just as good. I ate far too much bad food, relaxed with the family and generally am looking forward to a couple of days on my oddy-knocky.

One surprising event was the dreaded annual Trivial Pursuit game. Most years, it's just something that has to be borne before I could haul my grumbling stomach back to the fold-out couch and snack on Tums all night. This year was quite different it sems. As stated previously the L'il Bros with both there and we turned it into a total trash-talking festival. My Mon and Step-Dad burst a gut, as well as some of the guests who weren't quite sure what to make of it at first but soon got into the mood, or rather, pulled themselves down to our level. It was actually quite enjoyable.

As stated, it's over. Now it's just figuring out what to do with myself over the next few days. I need two new pairs of shoes, my dry-cleaning and I haven't seen my Comic Book Guy in a few weeks. Add going to the gym and you have a pretty dull week (okay, three days really) planned.

Love it!

Gonna Party Like it's 1999

Well, maybe. We'll see how New Year's Eve turns out.

But before that of course is Mid-Winter Holiday Celebration Period formally known as Christmas. I fully admit I Grinched on the whole gift thing this year but I did tell everyone that all that is required for me is a card (and no, not a new video card).

This year it will be Little Bro's G 'n' B down in Lethbridge visiting Mama-San. First time in a few years all three have been in the same province at this time of year so that's cool. And Mom is thrilled silly, natch.

Random stuff. I watched 10 last night on BRAVO! a.k.a. peasant porno. I will fully admit I was drawn to it as I was flipping channels and just happened across a large amount of skin on my new hi-def television screen. I had never seen it before and I was quite surprised it was actually funny.

I also got to thinking that if they made this movie today there would be Christian Right-Wing "Won't Someone Think of the Children" Jihad. There lots of nudity, couples with open relationships, swingers and conspicuous consumption of "grass". The term seems so archaic now, but anyways. We are living in much different times than twenty years ago. And to our detriment I think.

Finally got my copy of "Sword of the Stars". Love that game! Spent my entire day playing it, despite the laundry, shopping, cleaning and sundry chores I have to do, but that's what time off is for. For me at any rate. So the only thing I'm expecting in the mail is my new passport, which I fully intend to use come February. If I'm not moving.

Other Randomness. I'm being "set-up" for a not-a-blind-date. You know, where you "the victim" get invited out to something with a group of people to include "the other victim". This all started as a friend of mine met this girl through an acquaintance. There was much girl talk and the subject came around to finding a nice, honest, quiet guy who doesn't want to party all the time and keeps himself to himself. A description I grudgingly fit well. It got me thinking that it is hard to meet guys like that for the pretty obvious reason they (okay, we) don't get out much. It's pretty close to "Why Can't I Meet a Nice Guy?" to which my answer is my "You do everyday but you aren't attracted to nice guys" rant. There's a legit reasoning that if you want to meet a quiet guy you really have to pay attention.

Still, would be nice if I had a picture....

Well, I have to get packing to go to the Calorie Intake Extravaganza known as Mom's place. You all have yourself a good Christmas (or other holiday, you know who you are). I'll whine, rant and occasionally have something poignant to say before the new year.

Well, two outta three anyways.

... Before the Storm

Aaaand that didn't last long. The needle on the Stupidex at work got buried again.

Why, oh why do people let things get the crisis point before bloody well telling someone about it. Lack of planning on your part yadd yadda yadda.

I need a beach and vodka. Instead I'll go to the gym, come home and drink vodka.

Strange Calm

This is going to sound weird, but I've actually had a couple of good days at work. Now some may invoke the old chestnut of "holiday spirit" as a reason to which I reply "exorcism". It's been slightly less nuts this week so I've had a chance to put a major dent in the task list, explain reality to a few folks who were obviously listening and in general get shit done.

Morale has improved remarkably.

And speaking of the holiday, by now I have usually put aside the bah, humbug mentality this close to Christmas but it seems not this year. I'm waiting for the days off in great anticipation but the actual event of Christmas I don't give a curdled eggnog about. Not that this is a bad thing (for me at any rate) but it does mean the normally low tolerance for carols, mistletoe and other sundries is reading zero on the "Fest-O-Meter". That actually sounds like I'm negative but the reality is very much a sense of indifference. Maybe I'm just old.

And until this moment I didn't make the connection that New Year's Eve is hot on the heels of the Yuletide.

It's entirely possible that my brain turned Buddhist without telling me.

Another One Bites the Dust

Another old friend has passed away: my graphics card on my main computer.

Actually friend may be a bit strong. I picked it up nVidia 7400 (or something) because my old nVidia 4200 (or something) just wasn't up to snuff for a game I wanted to play (Battlefield 2142). It was one of those "suspect" brands that one never hears of. Now normally when I build or upgrade my machine, I get the good stuff, top of the line. This issue was my motherboard doesn't handle PCIE cards and this was the only AGP card out there that had the guts required for the newer games.

By a stroke of luck (and after I had a stroke) I found my old video card. Thank gods I'm a pack-rat. But the new one is toast.

Now my rig is over three years old, the motherboard and CPU at any rate. It's time for a brand new machine. But I always need that one motivator, that one piece of software, that game that makes me build a new pulsing powerhouse of geeky potency.

There's nothing out there now that makes me want to do that. Seriously. The one game that I have on order (and have been waiting for for six weeks) is Sword of the Stars and it's expansion, which runs just peachy on my laptop.

So I'm going to hold off a bit. I will pick up a juicy external hard drive to dump all my files in just in case it's the motherboard going south but I'll hold off on the new rig for a while.

Maybe something like this....

Mind you, I may have the card still under warantee: I seem to recall being in a good mood and buying the extended one....

Sleepy Time

Now this may sound a bit odd, but you're here, so you should have at least some expectation of the possibility.

When I wake up, I have always had the feeling that time had elapsed whilst I slumbered. Regardless of how much time I had been asleep, when I wake up there's a part of me that knows somehow that time was passing I was sleeping.

This week was different for some reason. When I woke up, I felt like I just blinked instead of snored for seven hours. My body, my mind, whatever had no sensation of time having been passed. It's disturbing in a couple of subtle ways. For one, now I'm not sure what is normal. What do other people feel when they wake up? The visceral knowledge of passed time or the instant time-shift from last night to this morning?

In trying to draw a parallel here, the best I could come up with is: imagine you woke up one morning and discovered that you were right-handed. When you went to bed last night, and every previous night of your life, you were left handed. The shift from south-paw to rightie is perfectly perfect; your newly dominant hand feels exactly right (pun intended). But your mind is screaming something different; you have always been right-handed but you know it should be the other way around. That's kind of what I've been feeling like but maybe not to that extreme.

Creepy, with just a hint of nightmare.

Days Off

I've taken today (Monday) and tomorrow off using some of the banked time from the death march, so naturellment I'm sick. Only myself to blame I suppose, L'il Bro B and I got completely inebriated Friday night. You know you're getting old when you get a two day hangover from ten screwdrivers. And a couple of shots of tequila, even if it was the good stuff.

So really today and tomorrow is my weekend, running around doing all that stuff I should have been doing as I lay groaning on the couch.

Whilst lying down with all the lights off, I did get a chance to think about the whole career thing. Of course (see the next to last post) I am a bit bitter about this business. It seems like programming, when you're a corporate developer (build software for internal customers) as opposed to a product developer (build software to sell) really is a no-win situation at most times. I'm wondering if that's a product of the whole "sufficiently advanced technology seems like magic" thing.

Now the above mis-quote always implies a bunch of illiterate tribesmen oo-ing and ah-ing at something like a toaster or a flashlight. I'm beginning to think that this actually applies quite well to modern, urban technological society.

Take your car for example. While some could tinker with an old-style engine, very few could get their head around modern cars. And let's face it, most people turn the key and when it goes "vroom" you're good to go. There's very little comprehension on what exactly that key starts: most people could never figure out what's happening under the hood.

Computers of course, are even bigger ju-ju.

When a person turns on the computer, it really does seem like magic. Words, images sounds, music all happen with no clue as to how it actually happens. Big magic. I could explain some of it (more than most at any rate) but at its heart it's one big magic box.

So people see a computer as the product of the arcane. Maybe not in those words, but if you work in the industry you see the borderline fear and discomfort many people have for computers. As long as they work, they are safe but as soon as something (almost anything) goes wrong there's a general throwing up and wringing of hands (interesting image). The folks like me are called to perform their rituals (as long as the ritual of ctrl-alt-del is invoked). The techs are the grand high wizards and exorcists of digital demons really.

Now take into account all the stories you heard growing up: Aladdin, Merlin, any and all wicked witches in any Disney movie. There are themes that run through almost all of these stories:

1. Magic happens at a snap of the fingers.
2. all magic is inherently dangerous.
3. the practitioners are at best shady characters and at worst outright evil.

It makes me wonder, in the gestalt of the societal mind, if computers and those that actually work with them are at some level just distrusted. On the one hand you have people making demands of the geeks as if they wave their magic wands (or probably their enchanted keyboards) and stuff just happens with an instant miracle. On the other, if a tech says it's not possible or that it "doesn't work like that", there's a reaction that speaks more to distrust rather than an acknowledgment of expertise. As if they think we're holding something back or we have a nefarious scheme to kidnap the princess. Which has an appeal but royalty tends to be high maintenance and have expensive tastes: most geeks don't get paid that much.

Techno-philosophical food for thought at any rate.