Falalala--la-la-la-laffle!

'Tis the night before Xmas
And Moby's on call.
He bought all his presents
and forgot to mail them all.

He's trying to find clothes
That show little wear
Cuz a movie date with Spike
Puts his hopes in the air.

But first: to his Auntie's!
That crazy old biddy
Whole be drunk and disorderly
And prob'ly quite giddy.

An evening of socializing
In the Yuletide season
And what's more surprising
Is the untold reason.

His holiday spirit,
a poor sickly creature,
has at this Yuletide
become quite a feature.

Good will towards man?
A smile on his face?
To all that do know him
That seems out of place.

But it's been a good year:
Job, home and (maybe) girl.
Cash in the clear!
His head's quite a whirl.

Not bad, all considered,
The twelve months past.
And who knows? Next year
May be just a blast!

So he wishes all well
This cold Christmas time
And if my date goes well,
well,
The season's best is mine.

Winter Solstice

Okay, I may be suffering from that seasonal disorder thing. Although it happens at the height of summer as well, at least I can blame something else this time.

But it has been a depressing couple of weeks. Maybe "depressing" isn't the right word. Listless? Humdrum? Nuanced angst over an unremarkable existence? Yeah, that one. I'm all emo, apparently. Being stuck indoors (and yes, I'm not exactly Grizzly Adams but I do get outside once in a while) may have something to do with it. And as previously, viciously stated my view of Christmas is less than Republican.

I haven't been to the gym more than twice over the past three weeks. I'm not sure if it's this niggling cold that just won't let go or just "I don't wanna go to the gym today" syndrome. And that I've been busy doing, well, not much but all these little things add up. Yes, I know, cheer the fuck up, get back to the gym, smile and bull through the holidays.

Then there's Spike. We managed to do the movies-at-her-place thing on Friday and there wasn't the same back-and-forth we've had. Not sure if it was due to depleted energy reserves (I had worked 70 hours in the previous seven days due to on-call), the weather, being nervous a bit etc. There just wasn't that same effervescent interaction. But her dogs are great!

Well, they can't all be zingers.

So this week: L'il Bro B is crashing on my couch for a few days as he makes his way to and from Lethbridge, three days of (I'm thinking slack) work, Christmas Eve at the Crazy Cat Aunt's place, dinner-and-a-movie with Spike on the actual day, UFC night at Big M's on the weekend. That's pretty active for me. Now if I can just cheer the fuck up I might enjoy.

But now, I'm going to try and hit the gym again. Yesterday I got as far as the car.

Spirit of the Season

This pretty much sums up the feelings that get stirred up for me during the Yuletide season.

Dropped $700 on presents, and I'll still get passive-aggressive grief because I only got so-and-so a card. Packed malls, insane drivers, lousy weather, annoying carols that have been permanently etched into my synapses. Hours, even days lost: not to make the holidays bright, but just to get them bloody well over with.

The unending obligations to relatives you only see once a year. The forced merriment of corporate head-office mandated Holiday Enjoyment Events. Guilt, anxiousness, self- and other-loathing. Stress. My gods, the stress.

"Bah, humbug!" doesn't even enter into it. The Grinch was just mildly miffed. I'll face down the Holiday Spirits with an untested, backpack-mounted atomic-powered proton-colliding device and think very hard about crossing the streams.

Followed, of course, by the driving need to have forced fun one week later. Thinking you're a miserable loser if you don't get a peck on the cheek. And then, and then promising yourself that it'll be better next year.

Not the most wonderful time of the year.

Frozen

Yes, Capa, I know I haven't updated in a while. I'm trying though.

So first off, me and Spike. Things are going. Slowly. Glacial. She did manage to buy a house last week and so now she has some free-ish time. We had planned to watch The Dark Knight at her place on Friday. It was going to be the big test. Meeting her dogs and seeing if they approve is a huge "moment". For those of you who have never dated a woman with pets, they have to like you or it's over. Secondly it would have been our first night in, which is another "moment" that shows levels of trust etc.

But, of course, we got the first serious arctic cold front on Friday afternoon. We called it off for safety's sake (albeit reluctantly on my part) but I knew it was the right thing to do after it took me more that two hours to drive home. And apparently I was on the good roads.

The other good thing about breaking the date is because I'm on call this weekend and the damn phone hasn't stopped chiming. In addition to the plethora of "hit a button, something broke" automated messages, something odd with passwords happened last night and I'm still trying to get someone to have a look to see what the hell is going on. Having to deal with work issues would not have impressed Spike I'm sure and I certainly would have been ... grumpy. I still am of course, but for different reasons.

With the thermometer hovering around -30 with wind chill, it's not like I would have gone for long, brisk walks this weekend but it's always nice to have a choice. Despite the biting cold, it's still a balmy 25 centigrade in my apartment, so at least I'm working in shorts and not much else. And adding insult to injury, half of my team went on a spontaneous trip to Hawaii.

So besides all that, things are basically at a stand-still weekend-wise. I'm hoping for thaws on several levels over the next week, but according to the weather and my bachelor's intuition, that may be a long time coming.

Right

Well quickie update. Two, no, three things:

1) Yup, I was right. I got the "I need to sort out my life right now" shtick from Spike. It was quickly followed up by the classic "Let's just be friends". Oi. Well, it was for "right now and see how it goes". I'm okay with that but of course, any length of time spent in the Friendzone means languishing there for eternity. Yeah, yeah, I know. She does have quite a bit going on on so, yes, I totally understand. Doesn't mean I need to be thrilled. We'll see how it goes. Besides, I still like her like her and I think she feels the same way but just can't cope with starting a new relationship right now. And the winner of the "Wishful Thinking" award goes to ...

2) We got our bonus cheques last night so I ran out and got myself an iPhone! And it stopped working after only three hours! I got it back into shape: apparently the touch screen, well, doesn't respond to touch sometimes. Ah well, having fun so far.

3) I woke up yesterday with a mondo head-cold. That meant I had to cancel my SCUBA training for the weekend. Looks like I'll have to do it next year. Poopies.

Actually, points 1 and 2 bear a striking similarity...

Maybe I Didn't Jinx it ...

But it ain't looking too good. She's really busy with a bunch of stuff: house hunting, visiting relatives, classes, work etc. I know exactly how that feels. Still, I have a feeling that I'm going to get the "it's not you, it's me" chat in the next little while.

I really hope not. This is a woman who has all this stuff going on and she's not looking for anyone to rescue her. That, to me, is attractive. As well as the big brown eyes.

My point of view: life happens everyday and yes, it can be a bit overwhelming. But finding someone with which you have a good rapport, feel a connection and they feel the same way about you is a very rare event. When that happens you should go for it. When it works out, all that other "life" stuff gets easier.

Mind you, I also know that timing is everything and this may not be a good time to start something for her. I'm not putting any kind of pressure on her for her time: she needs her own time to deal. But she's also considerate, so she may think that she can't give me the kind of time she thinks I need. I may have to dissuade her from that notion if that is indeed the case. One good thing about 40 is you get a good supply of patience and a generous helping of empathy. At least I did. I think it came with the killer sunburn.

In other news: studying for my SCUBA boot camp (flipper camp) progresses. There's a lot of stuff to know, but knowing Archimedes' Principle got me right through the first two chapters. One worry: sharks. And that's for going to see Jaws when I was nine. Thanks Dad!

I Jinxed it. I Think.

Crap. Maybe not quite yet, but the signs are there. But maybe I'm just being paranoid 'cuz I'm sick. I truly hate the beginning bit of a proto-relationship. Which is one of the main reasons I swore off dating: the angst, the doubt, the anxiety, the second, third and twelfth guessing of yourself. That style of thing.

And probably everything is actually okay, just my constant low-level anxiety spiking, again, due to sinus medication.

But still, crap.

Don't Want to Jinx It...

... but I had a date! And on top of that, I have a second date!

We were actually set up by Holmer. He was watching some video I shot in Maui and was laughing his ass off. He wondered out loud why I was single and was overheard by a woman he works with. She asked hm why he hadn't set her up yet.

So he did. Oh wait, I reported on that a while back. So she finally contacted me last week. We spent about four hours on the phone and went for coffee yesterday. Which turned into supper.

The funny thing is I broke one of the cardinal rules: I never got a picture before we met. And to my surprise, I was very pleasantly surprised. She's tall too,so that's just a bonus.

But it certainly ain't all physical: she's smart, and she makes me laugh which is novel and bloody fantastic as well. Oh and she has two big floppy dogs (which I have yet to meet). And, and, and.

And we're heading out for dinner Wednesday. Go me!

Deluge-ional

Since last weeks post was entering the "droning on" phase, I thought I'd report the other side of my reclusive hermit life this week.

Anyone who is dyed in the video-card PC gamer knows that the past couple of years has been less than exceptional for the industry (barring the whole MMO thing). Sure, there's been a few titles, but many of them were the leavings of X-Box or Playstation games. Lamenting this trend is dealt with on other posts so I won't bore you (again) with them here.

The past month though, there's been a bit of a sea-change.

It started off with Lighthouse Interactive releasing yet another expansion for Sword of the Stars, one of my fave-rave all time stays-on-the-hard-drive games. The expansion introduces a new race (totaling 6 now), revamps the whole administration of planets and technology and in my opinion takes the game to "finis". They really can't do much more without a whole rewrite. I'm hoping they do.

Then a couple of weeks ago, I found Good Old Games. At first, I thought it was just another attempt to sell abandon-ware nobody wanted in the first place. Then I saw the titles: Fallout, Sacrifice, Descent, Freespace, Messiah. And others which sent me reeling into nostalgic, pixelated glory. Full games, fully patched, modded to run on XP, no DRM. And all for less than $10 a game. So I picked a couple of them up (Freespace 2 and Sacrifice). Ah, gaming comfort food.

But this week, I fell hard. Capa showed me the collectors edition Fallout 3 complete with bobble head and lunch box. I liked the first two, so I checked out the game-play and promo videos. An after work trip to Best Buy on Friday to check out cheap DVDs saw me pick this up instead (as well as Bioshock: it was $25).

I've been lost in the Wasteland ever since. Capa did warn me this could happen (from experience). So now, I have five games I'm currently playing (although Fallout 3 has taken the lion's share of my time).

And as soon as I hit the "Publish Post" button, there's some slavers that need to have things ... explained to the them. Looks like my social calender will be lost and forgotten.

Back to Back to Back

First off, I'd like to wish Capa good look with the re-thinking of Stray Lemming. While it didn't become what he had hoped/wanted it to be, his unusual and humorous viewpoint has always been a highlight of my Tube-surfing. If it turns out that you're retiring to take on other projects (and I know who have a lot of them) Ghu's speed to you and it has been a pleasure.

Now, back to what is, essentially, my diary. I have no qualms with that. Wit: maybe. Wisdom: long-shot. Whiny self-indulgence: you betcha! That's what blogs are for.

Last Saturday saw me with the busiest social calender I've seen in quite a while. It started off with attempting to have lunch with a couple of former co-workers (okay, friends, but I don't see them that often and we usually talk about work). My choice of venues left something to be desired as this city's restaurateurs think opening for lunch on a weekend is a major taboo or something. We finally wound up a surprising decent Vietnamese place. Good times, good food and and great catch-up on all events.

Now, I had intended to spend the late-afternoon/evening taking a nap. The reason for this will become obvious a bit later. However, Big M called me up to remind me that we had tickets to Theatre Calgary that evening. I had, naturally, totally forgot.

So we went to the play. Not bad over all. I'd say the actual script was a bit lacking (way too many eighties jokes followed by a "now let's get serious" ending) but the stage production values were amazing. There were only two on-stage characters, and both spent the single act ninety minute production suspended from large beams, manipulated by a crew in black (who actually did get some stage time, with hilarity ensuing). This allowed the actors to move in 3-dimensional space rather than just the 2D plane of the stage. Made for some very interesting mis-en-scene. One of the actors is actually a para pelagic and considering it was his first acting experience, he did a great job.

But afterwards I had to rush home for a ten minute costume change myself: I had tickets for a midnight showing of "Rocky Horror Picture Show". Mind you, I didn't go full costume for this one, just something more casual than my "theatre-patron" outfit.

Now this was my first post-work social gathering with the office crowd. While the showing was poor (about eighty bums in seats) for the movie (it takes a pack of drunken, horny lunatics to pull off a good Rocky Horror) I did have a good time seeing the folks I work with five days a week in a more relaxed setting. Well, you know what I mean.

And of course, I made a total ass of myself. I danced on-stage, whooped it up (when I could remember the lines) and acted like I was 22 again.

Let me say this: I am not 22 no more. Ow. Ah well, I still had fun.

I think, though, that the dancing (strong word. Let's say, spastic contortions) actually did something to my back. That came to the fore as I was doing flies at the gym last night. Something went "twang", everything went red and it suddenly felt like I had a crowbar shoved under my right shoulder blade.

Which is why I took the day off today. It started with me emailing work that there was no way I could make it into the office this morning. I iced, heated and Robaxicet-ed myself all morning but to no avail. So I took the rest of the day off, stayed off the computer (with mixed success) and now feel like I have a small screwdriver instead of crowbar under my spine.

Now, where's the vodka? The pills have worn off. Daddy needs his medicine.

Underwater, Underwhelmed

Le sigh!

Looks like I won't be going to a beach until next year: my scuba lessons got postponed due to leakage in a pool. I originally booked for the beginning of November for a trip at the end of November, but now the lessons are at the end. December is always nuts for travel (well, cheap travel anyways) so it looks like I'll have to go in February. Which ain't bad after all: it will be in the middle of the deep freeze around here plus I'll have some more cash on hand.

Going to go see Sukiyaki Western Django this afternoon with Big M, should be a blast (as in over the top over-use of western, kung-fu and samurai tropes). And I'm in the mood for some cheese and popcorn.

Review forthcoming.

Review Here

So last week Big M and I had lunch together a couple of times, and he mentioned Sukiyaki Western Django as something he really wanted to see but couldn't find anyone to go with. Knowing that my tastes in movies tend to be... eclectic, he asked me. After checking out the site and the trailers, I had to see this. But unfortunately we didn't arrange a specific date and didn't realize it was leaving the local theaters that night.

But then, they extended the engagement. So we just took in the matinée.

Let me put it like this: Sukiyaki distills the pure tropes of sixty years of film-making started by Sergio Leone and Akira Kurasawa. The result is a cocktail of surprising potency that bypasses any internal critic and infuses the hind-brain. That's a good thing. There were so many references to both Sergio's and Akira's films I'm very sure I missed half of them. The film doesn't pound you with them, rather they are woven into the standard, almost boilerplate plot of both genres.

Pure, concentrated cliche. But, like most of our comfort foods, it's a 90+ minute cliche that never gets old, always tastes as good as the first time, and leaves you wanting more. Hell, I went grocery shopping after the movie and something must have triggered the latent samurai/gunslinger in me. I had that rolling gait that drew coy looks from the womenfolk and deadly glances from the men.

Any movie that can do that is going straight to my DVD collection.

Capa: you gotta see this!

'Kay...

Well, Happy Turkey Day to one and all! I know I'm stuffed, much like the carcass I stripped for protein. M'boy, them's good eatin'!

So: odd week.

It started off with Holmer contacting me out of the blue. We hadn't really kept in touch for the past year so I was pleasantly surprised when I got a message on Facebook to give him a shout. I figured he would be wanting to find a database guy for a position at his office, and even though I am in no way looking, courtesy costs nothing (unless you're doing it for a little brother).

Turns out, he was discussing some pix and vids I had posted on Facebook to one of his co-workers. He mentioned I was single and she asked "So why haven't you set us up yet?" Well, I gave him permission to give her my digits. I mean, what the heck, I'm not looking cause the looking itself is what is frustrating: having them come to me is another matter.

Now that in and of itself would not make for a remarkable week. If she actually calls, that would be bucking the odds. However on Friday night I got a late night text message from Kiki G. She and I had some catching up earlier in the week and commiserated about being single and tired of looking. And no, we wouldn't work-out as a romantic relationship: friends great, couple not-so-much. While at the bar, Kiki met someone who said she was single and didn't want to have kids. So natch, Kiki figured she would set us up. Kiki asked if she got her number would I phone her. I said sure (see above). Thing is, she wanted me to call Mystery Girl right now which was a bit odd. However there being no answer was not odd at all. I'm pretty sure Kiki was three-sheets at the time (along with Mystery Girl). I'll find out this week. And have some evil fun with it!

So two female-related stories. Now were into "okay, that's just a coincidence Moby, geez" territory. Except, guess who I ran into at a gas-station in the middle of bald-ass prairie? L'il Bro' G and I were headed to Mom's place for turkey and pulled over half-way to fill the tank and empty the bladder. I was looking for snackage when I heard someone call my name.

Laroo.

It was good to see her. It sounded like she had set some of her life in order (and got a new puppy). I was pretty dumbfounded at the random convergence so I'm pretty sure I sounded like a turkey being led to the block. We exchanged news, caught up a bit then went our separate ways.

And nope, nothing left except a fond-affection of a short but good time. I think a little closure on my part happened. I was kinda worried about me taking myself off the market (as it were) could have been motivated by having residual feelings for Laroo. That five minutes pretty much put that to rest. It's great she's doing so well, but as stated, we went our separate ways. Cool.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to find room for about twenty pounds of leftovers in my freezer.

Maui: Wow, Ow!

As promised, the report of my trip to Maui.

What can I say: I love them beaches! It was the first time traveling by myself and I'll admit it had some advantages. Nobody had a schedule but myself and I could change that up at any time. There are some distinct disadvantages too, but more on that later.

I arrived at "Maui's Most Hawaiian Hotel" at about midnight local time. After eight hours of traveling, I was pretty burnt out. Not to mention I couldn't see anything (dark by the water). I could smell the ocean though: almost nothing better in the world. After winding down and unpacking my stuff, I crashed.

And woke up at 7:30 the next morning to a brilliant warm day! I immediately donned my new swimming togs. After discovering that the label saying "M" was a big fat lie (in favour of a big, fat person), I put on my old swimming togs and headed for the beach! Glorious, glorious, glorious! And that was just the lady joggers! The water was warm, salty and shark-free. Crystal-clear water and a fine sand beach. I stayed and swum for a couple of hours, went back to the room, showered up and went to have my breakfast.

That was the routine every day for the next four days: up by 8, hit the beach by 8:15, back for brunch at about 10:30. I could live the rest of my days having mornings like that.

Now I had planned a few outings for the week, but only did a couple of them. There was the usual walking around the local towns (Lahaina has some fantastic art galleries and museums), taking in of the "local colour" comprised of fruit, luaus and Tiki Bars and generally being a beach bum. I did manage to get to Turtle Beach for a snorkel for an afternoon but only saw one turtle and no mantas. My plans to get some surfing lessons were struck as I was informed there was no surf: wrong time of the year. Shirts were purchased (I didn't bring enough), drinks were bought, women were ogled (although not many: the area is dominated by couples getting married, on their honeymoon, having an anniversary or taking the kids on vacation) and food was consumed, all interspersed with me flailing joyfully in the surf. I didn't get a sunburn until the next-to-last day but it was a doozy!

I really, really don't recommend getting generic sun-block: I looked like I was wearing bright red and dead white camouflage. One of the (few) disadvantages of going alone is nobody to rub on suntan lotion.

The last day was painful (and not just because of the burn). Checkout was the usual 11 AM but my flight didn't leave until 11 PM, so I had to kill twelve hours without exposing myself to harmful solar radiation. I'm not sure if it was a good thing but it wound up raining most of the day. I actually went and saw a movie (I wouldn't recommend Ghost Town. Americans don't know how to write/direct for Ricky Gervais.) Eventually I got on the plane. The ride home was uneventful except trying to get a pineapple through customs. And no, I did not hide it in a body cavity.

And for those of you who don't know, I went there for my 40th birthday.

I think one of the reasons I didn't do all the stuff I had planned is because I did the typical "life review" thing. The conclusions:

• My life ain't that bad
• Work is good, for the first time in a very long while
• My social life could use a shot in the arm, so I'm going to do more things (like SCUBA lessons next month)
• I'm probably going to be single for the rest of my life, but I'm pretty okay with that (fatal flaw: physical intimacy non-existent)
• I'm going to drink more. Not get plastered, but do the "drink after work / night cap" thing. It's relaxing!
• I really love swimming in the ocean (see SCUBA above. Also, Dominican Republic in November to get certified)
• I need to perform a social experiment with myself as the test subject. Details later

So there ya go.

Barring the occasional boring moment, the nasty sunburn (which is now peeling. Urgh.), and the occasional sigh at being alone for it all, it was a pretty damn good trip. So much so, that my body is insisting that it stays on Hawaii time.

Oh, and one more thing: after living forty years shying away from solar energy, I found prolonged exposure makes me happier, healthier, more confident, requires less sleep and overall improves my life. I'm going to a hot-spot for a long weekend at least once every two months. Gotta even out that burn!

Back and Burnt

I have returned! I have a sunburn! I have a lot of laundry to do!

The trip is over. I'll put some more detail into a new entry but for now I have t deal with the fallout (such as laundry, cleaning getting my internal clock reset). I specifically planned to have the weekend before heading back to work to do this stuff.

So of course that's when my Dad shows up expecting to be entertained for the weekend. Crap.

Good News, Bad News

The good news is that my land-lady just wanted to give me the "official" copy that the previous land-lady forgot to give me. The last one was very, very good as a building manager but was abhorrently bad at the paperwork, thus the difficulties in actually proving I am paying for my parking spot, banking mix-ups, the hole that is still in my kitchen wall and the complete failure of getting the buzzer for the front door working.

The bad news is I'm getting a friggin' cold! Just in time for my trip. I'd blame everyone at work showing up sick but I know I got it when I went to a former co-worker's place for a movie night and tried sheesha with about four other people hitting off the same hookah. And I knew that was going to happen...

Head in the Game

So 48 hours and change until I wing my way to Hawaii. I've been fighting a cold for the past week (which is still trying to conquer my fun). Now that sort of thing was inevitable but still annoying: just a variation of getting sick every Friday before a long weekend.

Strangely enough, I'm not quite as excited/nervous as I thought I would be. I'm managing to stay focused at work and the huge list of "to do" items for the trip is languishing somewhere on my desk top. I've covered all the major items but my usual list of checks and other preparation I haven't really touched yet (besides buying a new set of swim trunks that said "M" on the label but fit like "XL" around my skinny ass).

Oh, and of course a monkey wrench has been thrown into my pina colada. I received a notice yesterday that my land-lady wants to "review the terms of your lease". I'm not exactly sure what that means but it simply cannot be good. I'm pretty damn sure I've done nothing that would merit a "review" but we'll see what happens. I have a sneaking suspicion that I'm being blamed for the monstrous amount of detritus near my car in the parking garage that has been spewed out by the white trash that parks beside me. I would think that it should be obvious where it's coming from: the clean, empty, well-maintained compact car or the rusted-out 4x4 that has beer bottles, fast-food bags and cigarette packs piled to the roof (and spilling out onto the pavement every time a door opens).

If that is indeed the case, I'll let my land-lady know I'm going away for a week and she can see the results for herself.

Signifying Nothing

Okay, actual computer game review time! This week, I review the long-time coming, finally here Spore.

Anyone who plays video or computer games as a hobby has of course heard of Spore. Wil Wright of The Sims mythology (at this point) has, for a few years, been presenting his visionary, er, vision of a game that lets you start as a single-celled creature and eventually take to the galaxy. In that time, there's been a lot of hype, a lot of excitement and last week a lot of purchases (and if you've ben following along, a lot of pirate copies, DRM political fallout and general hullabaloo). I picked up a legit copy and I'll totally avoid the DRM controversies here and review the game itself.

If you've read more professional reviews, much has been made of the fact that this game is actually five different games strung together. While very true, most good games are really just a set of interacting mini-games (Sid Meir's Pirates! being a very good example). Spore simply puts more distinct boundaries between them, the "meta-game" being the customization of some many aspects of you cell/animal/tribe/society/civilization.

The much talked-about customization - the result of functional/procedural programming techniques - shines through in (almost) every aspect of the game. A very significant game in and of itself, you can (and probably will) spend hours designing, building and tweaking pretty much everything you can control in this game. It's very much akin in spirit of biological Lego, very versatile and if the Sporepedia - the in-game catalog of what others around the globe have created - is any indication very, very much in use by the people who have picked up the game itself and the Creature Creator which is a free download. It is however more of toy than a game which is never a bad thing. I'm sure that some people will pretty much stick to that aspect (and hey, if you have fun, it's good) but for me it can only hold my attention for so long. While I can appreciate that facet of the title, for me it does not make a game in and of itself.

Let's move on to the game play itself. There are five distinct "phases" to Spore: single-cell, creature (where you evolve into a shore-going animal), the tribal phase, the civilization phase and the final (although vast) Space Civilization phase. Each has its own distinct game-play mechanics and goals and each are very reminiscent of other games out there.

And that in and of itself the problem. While the first four phases are fun, they seem a tad too easy and/or limited in comparison to the titles they emulate (RTSes, 4X etc). Having following this game for quite a while I can see that much of the game play has been very much "cutified" since the inception. Now I won't go blaming the publisher for that, but someone, somewhere made the decision to dumb it down for the (potential) console kiddies. Each of the first four phases left me wanting more in both game play and challenge. But once I went through each of them a few times (learning a few things on each replay of each phase) I finally moved on to the biggest part and some one say the "real" game: Space!

The last phase is very, very much a "sandbox": hundreds of stars, multiple civilizations and a plethora of things to do such as colonization, trade, exploration, conquest, diplomacy and so on and so forth. It's very much a 4X-style game with a wide berth for customization. I am a huge fan of the genre myself (Sword of the Stars, Galactic Civilization, Masters of Orion and others of that ilk) and at first this seemed to offer what each of those games had and more.

At first, it was fun as you start to go beyond your home world (although I did find a nasty bug) exploring your own solar system, discovering another star-traveling civilization, establishing a colony on a whole new world. The classic stuff. Then it got annoying. Very, very quickly afterward it got frustrating. And then it got turned off.

Now I'm willing to forgive some things to a certain extent. Remember what I said about the "dumbing down" of the other phases? The Space phase controls are very complex (and I question some design decisions there) and it does have a pretty steep learning curve. I'm pretty sure that this part was not "consolized" and I honestly can't see a decent conversion of the control scheme to a console controller. I'm actually fine with that to a certain extent: having an actual learning curve is usually a good sign. But as I attempted to explore, expand etc "random" events kept popping up with annoying frequency. You had to go fight off pirates (yay), save your colonies from ecological disaster, fend off incursion of alien civilizations (one of which I accidentally ticked off by taking something of theirs) and so on. And these alerts, crisis and general baby-sitting kept happening every couple of minutes. To the point of distraction. Now I do understand that these are supposed to be distractions but the sheer volume of them made the game frustrating to the point where I was no longer having fun. And that's the point a game gets turned off.

It's like Mom calling you to wash your hands, take out the trash, mow the lawn, get ready for dinner etc. every single time you settle down start building your sand castle.

I fully intend to try out the space phases again, but if I encounter the same gale-force level of events that preclude me of actually doing what I want to do sometimes then I uninstall (using up one of the three installs I'm permitted). I'm not holding my breath though.

So in short: "Spore" is an excellent showcase for what can be accomplished by using advanced programming techniques with the creature and world creation tools. However the game play itself for the first four phases are watered down versions of other games already available on the market with the fifth "sandbox" phase completely spoiled by the volume and difficulty of the continuous interruptions spawned by the game. I think if the developers didn't dumb down the game play elements of the first four games and actually gave the player a chance to play the fifth we would have a watershed moment in computer gaming. Instead we have a watered-down version of other, better games and given a hiding behind the shed for attempting to have fun.

More of the Same

Ya know, in the past week, nothing new has happened. Seriously, it was pretty much a boiler plate seven days. I worked, bought far too many books and DVDs, month end went into overtime (actually still is dammit), I went to the gym a lot, smoked cigarettes, drank coffee, avoided housework, watched UFC at Big M's (great new digs by the way M) played a bit on the computer and went about the daily grind.

I can't help it: I have the feeling that there is a size 22 shoe hovering over me in near-orbit. Chock full of radioactive space athlete's foot. Or something.

Call me paranoid. Now apologize.

And ... that's it. Really. My life is a neutral gray right now. That's not a necessarily bad thing but it's not exactly a state of bliss either. I am not used to this. What I am used to generally makes me break out in a cold-sweat at 3AM and of course it's nice that I can wake up and not have to have my little early-morning scream but it's also weird.

And even this post is boring.

Hello?

Anyone there?

See?

Insomnia

Well judging by the clock on the oven, it's only 11:30 PM but I can tell it's going to be a long night. Insomnia has reared its ugly, red-eyed, droopy-lidded visage again. I'm never sure why exactly I get it: sometimes it's stress but frankly I haven't had much to be stressed about. Sure, I'm getting overly worked up about the possibility of being swallowed whole by a Great White off the coast of Maui but even for my bad luck that's still a long shot.

Maybe it's just boredom. Now, I'm firmly in the Rincewind school of boredom: it's rare and should be treasured as such. Truth to tell though, I haven't had this long of a stress-free run in, well, let's just say I had hair the last time this happened. Long, wavy chestnut locks past my shoulders. Hey, it was the late eighties. Gimmee a break.

September is of course looming and that usually means things generally pick up. I'm taking yoga classes, there's the trip, several luncheon arrangements, the play season begins again and of course there's always the gym. My goal of having a stomach that is shadowed by a chest by running 20k a week may actually happen before the trip! The extensive re-constructive surgery of my knees is well worth the effort.

That being said, it must be obvious that I actually have little to report. Long-weekends are always my "house chores" occasions where I do a top-to-bottom (okay, it's an apartment, front to back) scrub of the ol' Roost. I really should put that off until tomorrow: neighbors object to moving furniture and vacuuming at 2AM.

On the Geekier side: There are rumours that Joss Whedon will be holding a contest. He will be taking submissions from wanna-be villains: 3 minute videos for applicants to the Evil League of Evil. I, of course, will be making my humble contribution. No idea what I could possibly win, but what the hell. I'm bored and I'm buying a video camera for the trip. And no, I will not be appearing as myself: I'm more along the lines of "The Annoying Avengers" or similar. Besides, doesn't everyone want to be a villain?

I'd keep typing until I fell asleep but the carpal is acting up again....

Well, Something had to Give...

Okay the last post? That one where I seeming lost what remained of my marbles? Yup, no apologies. My guess is there's going to be more in a similar vein, although I'll give this whole "editing" concept a go before I hit the ol' "publish" button.

In the meantime, I got me a bushel of T-shirts from TShirt Bordello. Besides having the much-coveted Initech logo, they are one of the few online shirt vendors that offer shirts in colours other than black. Hey, I'm all for black. It's a classic. But once in a while I'm feeling blue/seeing red/green with envy/magenta with, um, mag...ne...tis...im. Or something.

Anyway, next rant will be my proof that Intelligent Design is a crock even if it is true. And yes, there will be an analogy with video games.

Moby's World Perspective Part 1: Rating Females, the 4 Tier System

I really shouldn't be typing this as my wrists are bound so I don't feel sharp pains up and down my forearms but since I can't use the computer I'm bored. There's only so much grocery shopping, house cleaning, laundry, er, laundering and sundry chores I can do in a day.

A long while back I promised I'd explain my own rating system for the female side of the species. So here we go, Moby's World: Rating the Human Female (I'm so gonna lose my female readership over this. Sorry, The German.)

Anyways...

Since cavemen could count on their fingers, human males have been rating women on a scale of 1 to 10. "Oggette have sexy sticky-outie brow ridge and soft, luxurious facial hair. I give her 8". Now after millennia of this inaccurate, subjective system I'm here to propose a new system based on more modern pop-psychology and pseudo science (you know, those "institutes" that develop things like a better facial creme or hair care products). The Tier System!

Now if you take the numbers from 1 to 10, you'll note that if you start at the top with 10, move down a level using 8 and 9, move down another level with 5, 6 and 7 and use the lowest level for the remain 1 to 4, you have a pyramid. Okay, a triangle. I'd provide a diagram but my hands are bound, making the use of a mouse impossible.

So there we have 4 tiers: from top to bottom, Tier 1 (10), Tier 2 (8-9), Tier 3 (5-7), and Tier 4(1-4) plus a handy-dandy translation from the old, outdated and ineffective method to our new, scintillating, wonder-inducing tier system.

Now I hear you asking (as you report me to the local Women's Rights activist community) "what's the big deal? That triangle is simple a mathematical/geometric known behavior. Have you been taking too many pain-killers?" Therein lies the genius! Each tier represents not only a physical rating (considering only the topographical features of the female form) but contains, with a genius of simplicity, a sociological placement as well!

Every observer of the female form must know that women of the approximate physical attraction factor group together: the babes hang with babes, the plain janes stick to their own etc. Using that fact a single individual can be placed in a strictly subjective tier, but identifying the tiers' of their social peers also gives a great deal of information about an individual!

Let us take for example a group of three women. Using our original scale, Alice is a 6, Betty is an 8 and Carol is a 7. These of course are based simply on each individual without the social context: a strictly topographical assessment. Using our system, Alice and Carol are Tier 3 but Betty is a Tier 2. Let us now examine some possible scenarios and implications that are hinted at by the new system.

Now these three women are not far separated using either scale, so at first glance, there should be no surprise they are hanging around together. Maybe they are childhood friends or co-workers. As usual in any social experiment, there are always extraneous factors that disprove the theories. In the spirit of the state of science under the current Presidency, let's ignore the facts in favour of proving our theories!

Since most women group with others in their own "attractiveness level", why is Betty hanging with Alice and Carol? One possibility is that Betty has a slight self-confidence issue, not thinking herself quite as attractive as the world would see her. She considers herself a "T3" despite the fact she on a physical level a "T2". On the other hand, it's possible (though slightly less so) that Alice and Carol see themselves as Tier 2s, and they have accepted Betty (or insinuated themselves) as friends. But the most likely scenario is that both of the above are true: Betty is a little self-depreciating; Alice and Carol think petty well of themselves. So what does this tell us?

Not much except when you consider the following: women will consider only those males that are as attractive as they see themselves to be date-able! Now I hear you, what about the babes with the douche bags? With the money bags? Two factors come into play here: what the woman defines as "attractive" and how attractive the males see themselves, effectively meaning there is a Tier system for guys as well! However, it should be quite obvious that the placement criteria for each sex differs radically. At the heart of course is physical attractiveness, but self-confidence (even if unwarranted) plays a role: much more in the rating of men than of women.

How do we apply this to the real world? (Yes, I still have a tenuous connection to the real world). First, as a male, know your physical placement in the tier system. Using myself as a guinea-pig, I have been on the high-end of tier 4 for a while (say a 4 or 5), therefore from an initial-attraction perspective, I was a potential mate for those women who perceive themselves in tier 4. Now this does include some women who are actually in tier 3 but have self-perception issues and/or psychosis of one form or another (or both). As I've improved my physique, got rid of the glasses, reduced my hunch and gained a little self confidence, I can classify myself as low to mid Tier 3 (a 6 or thereabouts). This has shown itself as recently Tier 3 women looking twice at me and not for the purposes of remembering my face so they can pick me out of a line-up.

But the most significant implication easily (or conveniently) explains why beautiful women date douche-bags.

You do have to give them credit, douche-bags in general have good dress sense (while lacking all other kinds) which can mask physical imperfections. They also tend to keep themselves quite fit (as I see them all the time in the gym, I must assume that's pretty much all they do) so physically they can raise themselves at least a full tier on physical attractiveness alone. The clincher of course is that they see themselves as studly paragons of masculinity: they think they are gorgeous and completely desirable to the opposite sex and therefore are perceived to be so by most women (not all, thankfully). By fooling themselves, they can therefore fool others.

And that's why women are attracted to douche-bags! While time and experience (long-time exposure) with individual specimens may completely change their minds, it's that initial attraction of like-tiered (in both self- and others- perception) that gets them the girls.

Now if you'll excuse me, I'll have to go buy some polo-style shirts and pop the collars (at least wearing three at a time, all collars popped). And buy six litres of Axe body spray. And get drunk(er).

At the Seams

Well any denial I was experiencing with the impending "Number of Doom" (40) has been cleared well away. I broke down and bought some wrist braces to counteract what has to be the dreaded Carpal Tunnel Syndrome.

A couple of weeks ago I noticed I was getting klutzy. Okay, klutzier. I would drop things like pens, notebooks, 25-pound weights (ow) etc. Last week I noticed that my hands and fingers felt a bit numb. This week: tingling sensations up and down my arms.

Now I had experienced this before a few years back. When I was beta-testing a couple of MMOs plus working 50+ hour work weeks I noticed the same numbness. It went away after a while so I put it down to bad circulation. Now that I think about it, I had finished the beta-testing about the same time I got my first team lead promotion. That meant I was no longer coding as much and that most of my time was spent in meetings (which numbs the brain but you can't get braces for that).

Since the demotion of course I've been pounding out code (or at least using tools) for most of the work day. I've also been playing computer games again after a long hiatus: Mass Effect and Tabula Rasa. And thus the strain on my poor piggly-wigglies. I'm also getting a fit-ball for both work and home computer desks as my neck and shoulders are killing me. I've always had bad posture but I've been feeling Quasimodo-ish for the past month.

Add the fact that I need to shove a piece of plastic in my mouth every night to stop me from grinding my teeth to nubs. I'm pretty sure the next logical, inevitable step is to get a Rascal, hike my pants up to my nipples, replace my hips and finally get that house so I can shout at kids to "git offa mah lawn!".

On another note I went and did something that seemed like a good idea at the time but turned out to be a case of "No Good Deed Goes Unpunished". I won't go into details but in a fit of moronic magnanimity, I attempted to give moral support to a stranger. For my trouble I was told, and I quote, "you are a psychopath and you will get yours". Yup, say what you want about the wages of sin but virtue doesn't pay at all but is just as taxing.

Update: Crap. I started reading old posts after I posted the above and got into the parts when I was dating Laroo. Crap.

Summertime!

Man I am loving this heat. Not just for the scantily-clad, sweat-clinging lovely creatures walking around (although that is a huge part of it) oh no. You see I grew up in Regina, and although the winters had most of us spray CFC laden chemicals in the air to speed up global warming, the summers were hot.

Perfection would be a pool without the 10% urine content of public swimming cess-pits.

Lamentably I'm on call this week or I would have gone down to the reservoir and rented a sailboat. Also L'il Bro B is in Vancouver else we'd be hitting a patio.

Other than that it's been an uninteresting week event-wise. I have been getting quite a few deja-vu as of late so Fate has something in store for me. I know that sounds weird: I'm not a spiritual/paranormal believer by any stretch but when this occurs, something big has usually happened. That or I'm not getting enough sleep with the heat.

Now if you'll excuse me, I need to prep the BBQ for a nice New York cut and roasted corn. Livin' is easy....

Wheels Keep Turnin'

While I wait for month end to finish (one that has gone well for once) I thought I'd regale you with some of my life stories, or at least stuff that happened this past week.

To start, L'il Bro' B finally moved from Cowtown to Vancouver. It seemed a leetle beet more of a drawn out process than it should have been but I've never done a move out of the city so I could be wrong. He's moving to take a promotion at his job, and he's not going to miss the "dipshit ignorant sausage-fest Calgary" at all. And you thought I was bitter. I do have a feeling he may miss his brothers a bit, but only a bit. He's the brother who tends to "go dark" for weeks at a time. I'm guessing he'll still do that but for much shorter periods. Bonus: I have a place to crash when I go to Van!

In Entertainment news, I saw Spamalot! with Capa and Big M (and their "dates") last night. It was just as good as the first time when I saw it in T.O.. Granted the performance wasn't as "tight" (it's the traveling troupe) but it was just as fun. It also cemented the idea if I could find a woman who can sing and dance (and have the figure of same) and make me laugh, I'd get down on one knee and propose there and then. Bonus: rampant, blind and unrealistic optimism has proven to be good for your health.

In Auto news, I got myself new tires for the Moby-Mobile. What with all the cash that flowed away for the Mid-Life Crisis Tour '08 I was still a little hesitant to get them. The ones I had were the original set when I got the car in '01 but since I have less than 60K on the car I wasn't sure I needed new tires.

I needed new tires.

The difference is amazing! I actually splurged a bit and got something with high wear and traction ratings. The drive home today really opened my eyes: better acceleration, much better handling and quiet. Money well spent, and I'm sure even more so when the snow hits the ground. Bonus: got a very deep discount due to where I work.

And finally in Health news, this weekend I fell off the wagon, rolled down the shoulder, launched off the cliff and caused an impact crater a quarter mile away. You can still see the smoke coming from the impact epicenter, which is from my cigarette.

But it occurred to me today that since the last time I had quit using a patch, they radically changed the chemical composition of the patch. Which would explain (to a certain extent) why the damn things didn't feel like they were working at all. Besides, Big M's aunt (Auntie S), an experienced nurse, told me that most people who quit successfully used the gum instead of the patch. Now that they don't taste like the bottom of an ashtray, I bought a crate and will be trying that out this weekend. Bonus: less vulnerable to colds as that chemical in the patch that gets the nicotine under your skin also gets everything else it comes into contact with under said skin.

And so it goes...

Booked

Ah, the end of the weekend. The five days were nice, but I could use a couple more to recover the chore-flurry. However I'm more than willing to forego time off now in anticipation of Maui for the B-day. I just booked the hotel (yes it's cheesy), which means all the big expenses have been taken care of. I didn't get the full-on-the-beach room, rather a "full beach view" which saved me a couple hundred bucks, but at least it ain't a glorious view of the parking lot. It includes a car rental, which is cool, breakfast each day and a massage, and was cheaper than just the room. Yeah I know, there's a catch somewhere....

So now some wardrobe: shorts, a couple of shirts and a hat. And now that summer is almost over, those should be cheap like borscht.

I so need a beach. I've been saying that daily for three years but now it's gonna happen! And on my birthday! I'm gonna be as drunk as a sailor at the luau....

Meaning, with my luck, I'll wake up the next day as "crew" on a cargo-ship headed to Siberia.

It Must be Fate!

Why, oh why is it that every time I take time off I get sick by day two?

And I know exactly who the culprit is. While buying $5 DVDs at BestBuy at lunch, the girl at the checkout sneezed right in my face. She didn't even attempt to turn away or cover her mouth. That was Tuesday and most colds have a three day incubation phase. I got the histamine feeling around noon today. Right on schedule.

Gotta go drink a gallon of Echinacia (sp) tea.

Holiday!

Yay! Not three, not four, but having myself a five day weekend!

Man I have a lot of crap to do.

• Clean car inside and out
• Get new tires
• Help L'il Bro B move to Vancouver
• Clean the house
• Book a hotel for Maui
• Take L'il Bro G to Lethbridge
• Avoid checking my work email

So really if I only do one of those a day, I'll be okay. Whew!

The non-smoking thing is sucking at the moment. The last three days were just a great ball of fun trying to conduct not one but two month-ends. Rerunning last month end and starting this month end is confusing as hell. And to top it off, we have new people involved in the process. They're good people Stewart, fine Americans but they don't know what the heck they are getting into. I really wish "the wagon" had seat belts. And child-proof locks. And while I'm wishing, erotic massage and instructional seminars by Amazonian astro-physics PhDs. Good for your mind and body!

Okay this week has obviously taken its toll.

Non-Smoking

So no smokes for the last 48 hours, almost exactly. Okay 46 hours.

I won't go into the knuckle biting, sweat-inducing, temper-flaring moments of the past couple of days. Yes, I technically quit last week but I managed to fall off the wagon several times and a boat once. Do not attempt to go boating with a little brother who takes the position of "captain" way too literally. Cap'n Bligh ain't in it.

Besides the long term health benefits of not smoking $12.49 a day, I found (again to my surprise) there are short term benefits. As I've mentioned, I've taken up running on the treadmill and try to get in three 5-K runs a week. I mostly managed, but with a couple of two-minute "breaks" of just walking.

Today, I went the whole 3.1 miles at six miles per hour straight, no breaks. Plus I managed to up my weight on all my sets and almost get to max reps. Which is unprecedented.

There have also been some mental benefits. Capa may have noticed that I was boppin' in my cubicle all day. On the way home from work I couldn't wipe the cheesy grin off of my face. And generally I went the whole day without homicidal mania kicking in even during the drive to work. So that's good right? And maybe just maybe there has been a subtle confidence boost: I noticed I was being checked out by women at the gym and they weren't repulsive (urinating dog! urinating dog! Pratchett reference).

Now I'm still going through withdrawals. I'm chewing through a pack-and-half of gum a day and gnawing tooth picks like I have a recessive beaver gene of something. But this time it feels good and right.

Mind you all the good things above may just be my version of dead-baby-crawling-on-the ceiling (Trainspotting reference) but even if it is I'll take it.

I'll be able to afford the week in Maui I just booked for my birthday/mid-life crisis. And I won't be as embarrassed to take my shirt off at the beach. There's still the dead-white skin that is my heritage but at least there won't be as much of it.

"Doctor Horrible!"

Okay, seriously folks, go here. It'll only be around for a few days.

If you are or were ever a fan of Buffy, Angel or (and I know almost all of you are) Firefly then go get some more Joss Whedon goodness.

Sorry about the links to Fox but technically they own the rights to all the shows they canceled.

Why haven't gone yet?!? Go!

I am such a fanbois.

A Good Day to Quit Smoking

As usual, my timing is impeccable:

1. I was awoken at 4:35 AM this morning by the dumpster-divers rifling through the last night of Stampede trash. An altercation about who got the half-full bottle of something or other ensued and was ended when said bottle was smashed over one of the opponents' heads.
2. Was the first at work this morning and discovered that most of the weekend processes didn't.
3. Somehow I got roped into being the contact for my team on a new project which at first seemed like a simple matter but by the end of the day looks to be a political nightmare.
4. I had to (and still am) running month end for the third time this month because of, well, I don't know really.
5. Minor plumbing problems (kitchen sink not draining) on Saturday resulted with me coming home today to a giant hole where the wall used to be. Sawdust, muck, water and dirt everywhere.

Needless to say, tomorrow is Day 1 Version 2

Burning Sensation

Wow. In my efforts not to spend money, one of the biggest hurdles is to keep myself entertained. Or at least busy. When I'm bored, I spend money on tings that relive the boredom for about an hour. This is costing about $20/hour on average.

So toady after the gym (I'm paying for it until the office moves to the new building) and grocery shopping (stuff that's absolutely required and on sale) I started burning the CDs I've purchased over the past few years and never got around to burning. These have been languishing in various nooks and crannies in my car for a while.

38 CDs. And about half of them "Best Of.." albums. I must be getting old when I buy those. That or the music is.

And of course as I burn them, they get filed into the big box (why keep CDs around?). And I gotta wonder why I have some of the stuff. "Shonen Knife"? "Enigma"? Okay, I an understand the kitsch factor. How the hell did I wind up with a "Spice Girls" album? Either an ex- or a drunken purchase (probably a combination of both).

What I was happy to see are the "harder" bands like "Primus", "Cake", "Tupelo Chain Sex", "Ministry", "Day-Glo Abortions" etc. Apparently I was into the whole Ambient Electronica thing when I got my iPod and didn't load up with something a tad harder. I haven't burst an eardrum in a while so it'll be a nice change. Also found my old "Supertramp" and "Yes" albums if I wanna get groovy.

Man I love hearing this stuff again.

Impulse

Okay the whole not doing the impulse buy is harder than I thought. I picked up "Midway Arcade Classics" and "Guitar Hero 2" for the PS2.

And two weeks worth of nicotine patches. Quit day is Monday. We all know how this is gonna go....

I'm Moby the Sailor-man!

Yesterday was my first full-day sailing lesson with Li'l Bro G. Although the weather was less than cooperative, and there were times that G and I almost came to blows (the little boats we were on are a bit "tippy") it was a blast and a half. Looking forward to the next couple of weeks of this: I could see myself sailing the ocean-blue as a retirement plan. Especially if my home-port was somewhere in Italy.

So as befits sailors returning to shore, the Bros and I went drinking, fighting and lookin' fer wimmen. Actually went to a strip club to watch Ultimate Fighting Championship but that's as close as you'll get in the middle of Bald-Ass Prairie.

On the work front, my stock-purchase program kicked in for my last check and, well, let us just say I see a lot of Kraft Dinner in my future. Ouch. My take home dropped over 40%! I'll have to fill out one of those "Mr. Tax Man, please stop raping my bung hole until tax-time" forms. I'm even considering stopping smoking. Really. Not going to happen, but it may be a last resort.

My Mass Effect review has gone critical. It's long, meandering and really doesn't say anything you can't read anywhere else. So I'm going to start again. And probably start the game up again. But in the mean time, here's what I learned from playing Mass Effect:

1. You can be an asshole or you can be a saint. But if you try to be a bit of both, you won't get very far.
2. The women who are strong, funny and fun think I'm a dork.
3. The women who are socially inept shut-ins with strange skin conditions throw themselves at me.
4. No matter how extensive the character creation engine is, I'm still ugly.
5. When I'm in charge, expect any order issued to be ignored in favor of standing and staring at a crate.
6. Pointing a vehicle in the direction yo wish to go and hitting the gas will get you there eventually.
7. No matter where you go, someone else got there first and will charge you a fee to enter. Or just shoot at you.
8. Blasting zombies with a "boom-stick" is great fun no matter what the age, epoch, universe and cause of zombie-ism.
9. The exact item you need will be in the store the moment you can't afford it.
10. The universe is out to get you. This can be handled with bigger guns, better armor and the ability to throw shit into outer space with the power of your mind alone.

Dentally Disturbed

So I went to the dentist today. Aside from the light - you know the one they have on the arm? - that detached and fell on my face, I had a disturbing visit to my dental health care professional. More than usual anyways.

There's a bit of history coming up, so get comfy.

Let's go back to Moby's grade school days. See him with his short-sighted squint (Dad insisted I didn't need glasses), his picked-last-for-sports figure and coordination. His hand-me-downs from his uncle. Ah what a picture. I told ya to get comfy.

Now my grade school participated in a program where young student dentists could practice their new-found skills on the (unsuspecting) little kiddies. My guess is that since they would be working on baby teeth, any mistakes etc would have no long term effects. They would get practical experience and kids would get free dental work. That suited my Dad just fine. Free dental care for three growing boys? Why not?

Well let me tell ya why not.

Some of the dentists-to-be (most, okay all the ones I went to) decided that if the teeth are going to fall out anyways, might as well make the best of it. Every kid in my class had each and every molar filled. Almost every kid wound up with the cheapest, ugliest set of periodontal work that these wannabes could stuff in their pre-pubescent mouths. And let me tell you, these guys were not gentle. Tales of broken teeth, punctured cheeks (mine, left side) insufficient or just plain not administered Novocaine (l'il Bro G). Every kid in my school absolutely dreaded visits to the dentist. My brothers and myself actually managed to avoid the wire-cage look, but my Dad kept giving us shit for not brushing and flossing (which we did with much rigor in a futile attempt to avoid the inevitable and excruciating).

Now fast forward a bit to high school. See Moby with the gangling limbs, the coke-bottle lenses set in the cheapest rims imaginable (my Dad finally relented after my teacher had a long, long talk with him) and the hand-me-downs from his uncle. This high-school also participated in the program. However this time, it wasn't milk-teeth, it was the permanent ones they were working on. In my first visit I received two "fillings" which were completely unnecessary: they just drilled holes to fill them in.

Fortunately for me, the program was discontinued in my second year. Unfortunately for me, my Dad was pissed: there was no way he was going to pay for seeing a dentist twice a year. So for the next three years, it was me and my toothbrush against the universe.

Now fast forward a bit to my (first) term at University. See Moby with the shoulder length, thick, wavy chestnut hair, his groovy glasses, his uncle's hand-me-downs (which were actually tres chic retro at the time). He can't afford to go to the dentist, but he brushes and flosses every day. His one visit was for a cleaning: there was a girl he was trying to impress. He received a clean bill of health (aside from the nicotine stains).

Now fast forward (sorry) again to six years ago. It's been fourteen years since Moby has seen a dentist. His teeth are not in good shape. For the past decade and a half, he could barely afford food, let alone dentistry. He has a molar that has split, exposing the nerve. He has wisdom teeth that ache constantly. But now, now he has dental coverage and he takes advantage of it. His girlfriend at the time recommends her dentist and can get me in with a recommendation. Moby books an appointment.

I think I really grossed the dental assistant out. I know I gave the dentist an orgasm.

Years of plaque were removed with monthly visits. The broken tooth was ground down and a temporary crown put in place. Four wisdom teeth were yanked bodily out and the final cap put in. Even though coverage paid for half of the work, the bill was indeed quite hefty. But worth it: I was no longer in pain, my teeth were white(r) and I could chew on both sides of my mouth.

Then something odd happened. I began to grind my teeth. I mean grind. So much so that I would wake up in the morning and my jaw would feel like I had been chewing stale bubble-gum all night.

Over the course of the next couple of years, my (new) dental hygienist and the dentist told me my gums were receding. This was true, I could see where the roots of a couple of my molars were exposed. The dentist said I needed to get a special "appliance" that would prevent me from grinding my teeth. He would keep saying that until today, where he added that if it continues (i.e. without the $1500 piece of plastic) I would need to get painful surgery. I still said no, using the excuse that at the moment I could not afford it.

I went home and did some research.

While indeed grinding of the teeth can cause the recession, it's only a contributing factor. Other include: using a harsh toothpaste (like the whitening one I use) brushing too hard with a hard toothbrush (which I realized I do) and age. It happens.

Maybe I get it from my old man. But honestly ,when someone who is essentially a health care professional immediately recommends the $1500 solution without mentioning any of the alternatives or possibilities, well the apple doesn't fall far from the tree.

I went to the drug store after work and picked up three things: a less harsh toothpaste (which cost about double what I get now), a sonic toothbrush (about $150) and an "appliance" which, after following the instructions to mold it to my bite, cost $1470 less than my dentist's "solution".

I am really hoping the above works for no other reason than to go into the dentist's office in six months, show him the recede-less gum line and tell him to, well, I'm trying to think of something witty here, and I have six months to do so.

Maybe I'll just bite him.

Statement of the Obvious

And now my whinging has some scientific proof.

Drop It

Been a bit of a klutz the past twenty-four hours.

Last night at a local pub, I dropped a table on my big toe. I was there with a bunch of my former minions from the last job. Besides all of them asking if there was work for them at my new place, they said I looked quite happy, which, apparently, came as a bit of a shock. It was good to see them as they are a good crew, I'll see what I can do for them (or at least most of them). Seems things aren't going so hot in some cases.

So besides having a big, bloody, purple big toe the night went quite well.

This morning I accidentally dropped my phone in the toilet (see the theme here?). Apparently cell phones aren't water proof (yes it was just water). I'll be looking for a phone tomorrow. Looks like I've been a bit of a klutz as of late, which kinda makes the idea of making fried perogies right now probably a bad idea. I probably should get the steel-toed boots out in case of further accidents.

I Hear Voices

Well I do. My ears work pretty well.

But specifically I've been using my web cam and mic to record something i like to call Smokin' with Moby. No, I don't post it online. This blog is my public face and the video is my private one. And kind of my therapist. At least when I talk to myself I can justify it by recording it.

One thing that struck me is my voice. It sounds pretty much like I expect it to, but for some reason I tend to talk in a bit o a higher tone that my normal voice. I also seem to end my sentences in a higher tone that when I start. I did a little research and apparently it gives a subtle hint to other that the speaker is not all that confident in what they are saying.

I also noticed that I do that when I'm not in front of a camera. I have a very bass voice, so much so that a lot of people can't hear it all that clearly. I may have raised it half an octave just to make sure I'm heard.

Now I'm making an effort to get my vocal range back to normal, and stop raising it at the end of my sentences. It's actually harder than I thought and: speech patterns are an acquired habit I guess. So if you see me and my voice sounds like I'm gargelling gravel, that's my actual voice. I'm so gonna be Moby Vader....

And yes, I'll be posting a full (very full) review of Mass Effect. It's taking longer than I thought. And also, er, this is now available.

Soundtrack Offline

Well, that's it for me and iTunes.

As reported earlier, I built myself a new machine and (eventually) moved all my music to a portable drive. This week, I plugged in the iPod (yes, it had been a while since I had changed up the playlist). Since I had agreed (apparently) that the tunes I purchased online would only play on a single machine, I couldn't play anything I had already bought and paid for on my new computer nor my iPod.

There's probably a way around that (like calling customer service etc) but I figured why bother? I had 100 songs I purchased on iTunes, now all unavailable to me because I did the unthinkable: I got a new computer. Nobody ever does that.

So, yeah, I'm not purchasing anything from iTunes anymore. Besides, I've had problems on there before: music downloads wouldn't, the user interface didn't etc. Really, the application itself is (in my somewhat expert opinion) a kludge with only the most basic functionality, poorly executed and often times counter-intuitive at that. Not to mention I have been noticing the difference in sound quality for the native iTunes format and CD.

Of course this means that any inclination to get an iPhone has departed, my next portable digital audio device will not be an Apple product and I'll continue buying CDs (can you say Amazon.com?). That sounds bitter, even for me, but frankly I'm out $100. But I'll still use the iTunes store to sample any planned purchases in the future. Hey I'm a "forgive and forget" kinda guy.

No, wait, that's "hold a grudge until the grave" kinda guy.

Traitors Abound!

I'm home from work early as my gastro-intestinal system is revolting. In both senses of the word. It actually hasn't acted up in a quite a long while (to this extent, at any rate) so this is kind of a "Pearl Harbor" spasm. Looking back on it, eating sushi from a place called "Pearl Harbor" should have been a big hint.

Of course it may be divine (or abysmal) retribution for being a bad man this weekend. Previously I hinted I didn't want to jinx something. That something was a response from my almost-forgotten experiment on Craig's list. After about two weeks of communication, she indicated that she was in the process of getting a divorce which is a deal breaker for me. Is divorced is fine. In fact at this time-of-life it's almost become expected. But in the process of has two very definitive issues for me.

In the first place, I've seen what can happen when one of the parties decides to "get out there" in the middle of the process. What may have been an amicable split becomes a litigious frenzy of recrimination and emotional devastation. And honestly, who needs that kind of drama? Yes, I know, it's entirely possible that two people can go through a divorce as honest, mature adults. I have yet to see that happen, but I acknowledge the possibility.

In the second place (is that an actual phrase?) someone who has been in a relationship for a longer period of time needs to reset themselves to themselves as a single unit. A grieving period, discovering yourself, whatever you want to call it. Basically the opportunity to re-invent the person as "me without the other person". Otherwise there is a real danger that the person you are about to date is filling that hole, with all the expectations, frustrations etc that were focused on the recently-departed baggage focused on the new interest. Again, drama on an operatic scale which frankly I neither want nor need.

Her reaction when I explained that I'm not comfortable dating someone going through a divorce (having seen and experienced what that can do to the people and proceedings) was a) we were not communicating for the purposes of a relationship (which struck me as odd as the ad was placed under "men seeking women") b) You (Moby) are damaged goods for not wanting to see someone going through a divorce. And c) she mentioned her ex-to-be has already started dating which made me think "great, so you're looking for someone to show him you're out there, too?". Maybe a bit cynical, but hey, experience tells. And if I am damaged goods (a very distinct possibility) why put myself into a position where more damage can be done?

Of course, I feel like a heel for shutting down things so abruptly (she seems like a very nice woman with a lot to offer). I've learned the hard way that you need to go with your gut, even if it is unreliable in it's actual biological function. Now if you excuse me, I have to once again, er, you don't want to know.

Rain, Rain, Go Away. Seriously, F-off!

I think I've ruled out Vancouver as a possible place of residence. Two weeks of solid rain in Calgary. It's given me the blues, trending toward black in my mood as of late. I've gone beyond grumpy into downright cantankerous.

Much condolence to Capa for the loss of his dog, friend and family member. That's always hard. He was a good dog, even though I only met him a couple of times. Big, dumb and friendly, just the way I like them.

So nothing new to report over the past while: I'm at forty hours playing "Mass Effect" and I went all fanboi by buying the novel tie-in, the art book and the strategy guide (it was a bundle) on Amazon. A game hasn't awed me this much in quite a while. Full review when I finish.

That's about it really: keepin' on keepin' on.

Hit Me!

My company just did it's semi-annual profit share yesterday and although I just came under the wire with my starting date and got a small cheque, the potential for the next one is huge. Let me put it this way, the amount of the cheque I just received that covers off one week work at the new place is worth about 10% of the grand total of bonus cheques I've received in the past 10 years. Bling, baby.

And the stock purchase program (where you can contribute 20% of your salary which they match one-for-one) starts in a couple of weeks. Meaning the next year is going to be lean, but dear gods the payoff. Thankfully I have quite a nice little nest egg stowed away and there are three "three pay cheque months" in that time so the budget is tight but not overly restrictive.

On the game front, I just picked up Mass Effect for the PC and played it for about eight hours over two days. It's very reminiscent of KotOR (well, it is a BioWare game so no surprise) but instead of drawing on the Star Wars franchise they've created a milieu out of whole cloth. While they are sticking to many of the standard space opera tropes, it's extremely well executed and only enhanced by some fantastic voice-acting (including some Hollywood names, which is nice to see. I mean hear.). Too early for a final verdict but a preliminary rating of eight out of ten coffin-nails with a couple of screwdrivers so far. I was getting a tad upset about the convolutions I had to go through to actually get my hands on the game but now I'm thinking it's well worth it.

And despite the urge to fire it up again, I have too many chores to do for a Saturday (dammit) including, well ... no. Don't want to jinx it. And of course long time readers of this humble journal know exactly what that means.

Does Management Give You ADD?

I've noticed something about the new job. Or rather, I noticed something about myself at the new job. I can't concentrate for more than forty-five minutes at a time, even when I'm coding.

I suspect being a team lead has given me ADD.

For those who haven't been in lower-middle-management, it's basically fielding all the little problems that come along in the course of a day. Someone comes to you with a problem, you make a decision and either do some work to fix it or delegate. You rarely, if ever, get to really get into one particular thing for any length of time. "Multi-tasking", even though I despise the term, is almost appropriate here.

With my voluntary demotion, I'm out of that game. Before my rise into under-paid over-responsibility, I would lose track of time completely when I got into the zone. Now, the zone is just a dot on the horizon. I'm hoping I can make my way back there (it's only been two months) but still it's a bit scary.

And in other news: still single. Just thought I'd mention that.

"Hi Mom!"

Oh dear gods in heaven my mother just got on to Skype.

Now understand this is a woman who as resistant to technology as Teflon is to Jell-O. She still refers to the little checklist I put together to start a movie on the DVD player three years ago. The answering machine gives her nightmares (gods forbid the thing kicks in before she picks up the phone. Ten minutes of confusion followed by me giving her a message).

I love my Mom, really I do. But this simply does not bode well. She's the only member of my family who does not consider me the free tech-support guy. And I have been very, very thankful for that. The brain signals crossing the concept of "Mother" and "Support Client" simply cannot cope with the huge conflict.

Argh.

Diary of a Mad Zombie

To complete my weekend movie reviews, we have Diary of the Dead. It's Mr. Romero's direct-to-DVD release which does the whole "let's shoot it with a handy-cam" thing a la Cloverfield and Blair Witch Project.

It's not going to win the Oscar for best picture. The actors, portraying college students, are little stiff and the dialog is tad contrived. It does insert a new take on the handy-cam thing: footage from various other cameras (security cams, raw TV footage etc.) are sprinkled throughout. It gets the message across very well: right now we have so many media inputs, what the heck is the truth? How do you stabilize all the spin?

So the final rating is 7 of 10 smokes but I'm also giving it a full six screwdrivers for some of the amazingly creative ways to kill zombies. Two of the vodka-and-orange juice are just for the scenes where the walking dead are taken out by arrows. Mr. Romero, my hat's off to you (leaving my cranium exposed of course).

'K', Bored Now

A week of rain. The long weekend was so promising: the first May LW in about ten years where long-johns and scarves weren't required. And now, precipitation for five days straight. Bored and slightly blue.

So I watched a lot of movies. A alot of movies.

Lessee. Let's start with a block-buster. the social club at work sponsored a special screening of the Indiana Jones movie. I'll give it, er, what rating system do I use, oh yeah 4 out of 10 cigarettes. Not the best of the Jones franchise (that would be the first one) but about on par with the worst. No spoilers here, so let's just say a fundamental plot pattern was violated. There were a couple of times I saw this film racing up the ramp (you know the one, it has a shark just beyond it) but veered off at the last second. Still considering the tripe coming out of La-La land, not a bad film. Just, please, Mr. Lucas, please stop there.

For a bad film, go try Vexille. Or rather, don't. What is it about Japanese animation (a lot of it at least) where they go into the most intricate visual detail and nuance with the scenery (especially the technology) and then have the character's faces about as animated as a hammer? Wait, that implies some kind of movement. Rock? Wax figure? My love-life? Yeah that works. I actually managed to finish this one after stopping and starting three times (insert another love-life joke here). I picked it up for $20 which is kind of the "what the hell?" point of impulse buying for me. I am now thinking what I could have done with that twenty bucks. One old crumpled cigarette butt.

Now Hogfather on the other hand is quite brilliant. Made for TV this sucker is four hours long but keeps very faithfully to the Terry Pratchett novel with only dropping a few passages. For example no Librarian. Now I totally understand he wasn't cogent to the main plot, but still. The editing was a little, er, "loose" and I got the impression that there was a limited number of takes per scene, but this was made for TV, so I can forgive. Highly recommended for rabid Disc World fans and for those who like a little humor in an otherwise insipid Christmas movie list. Ridcully is perfect, and Susan (Michelle Dockery) is fantastic as Susan Death. And she has those big, dark brown eyes that make me ... er ... yeah sorry. It's extremely rare to find a holiday movie that I would insist my kids watch. If I had kids. Wanted kids.8 and a half out 10 smokes. And that's only because it took so damn long to be released in North America. Don't the Brits know how desperate we are over here for intelligent entertainment?

Now a movie that I think stood up to the hype is Cloverfield. There's a part of me that is really sick of watching beautiful twenty-something in everything so seeing them wiped out by a rampaging monster made me feel a little better. And it's also a good movie. Great concept which got me wondering what of the classic sub-genres would be good in the handy-cam style of remake. Seven of ten cancer-sticks. Bonus screwdriver for ending the way it did.

Which is why I'm watching Diary of the Dead tonight! That and the little brothers don't want to go to the peelers. Usually my life is sex or violence. Or at least simulated.

Cake and Kids

Whalp, .500 is a pretty good average in baseball. That's the correct sport, right?

Cake was amazing but way too short at just over an hour. I was hoping they would go at least 90 minutes but I got the impression they weren't thrilled with the folks here in Cowtown, so they busted out early. Anyways and regardless, great show. Thanks to Big M and all his friends for showing up and while still making feel old, I do feel better about it.

As for Kids in the Hall, well there was a move from a 7PM start time to 9:30PM. Now if I wasn't attending solo, it would have been no problem to retire to one of three pubs in the area I enjoy and have a few before the show. Since I was doing the singularity thing though, retiring to one of three pubs in the area I enjoy and having a few before the show by myself is just too sad to contemplate. Besides, past experience from my rock 'n' roll years says if it's delayed that long, it probably ain't gonna happen.

So I'm at a loss of what to do on a Saturday night. Not that unusual in and of itself, but this time it was unexpected. I did buy a whole pile of books when I went for lunch with Capa but frankly I don't feel very literary tonight. And I'm not quite so desperate to look on Craig's list for "casual encounters". Yet. We'll see how the ping is on my game servers.

Back to Normal

Okay it's obvious with my last few entries that my normal kvetching, never-ending gripe was put on hold for a little while. So, back at it.

Or rather, today was just one of those days. I was actually given a task of some merit and frankly I kept fucking it up, looking like a total twat in front of my new colleagues. I could probably say a bunch of stuff that would sound like excuses and evasions (and in one case that would be accurate). Let's just say that it's not fun walking into a giant system operation where everyone on your team has been working on it for 3+ years. One made a comment that "we are here to work" after I put on my coat to go have a smoke. Which I grant you I've been doing too much of lately out of boredom.

All in all the job is still good, I think (hope) I just had a bad day. An alarm bell went off though. The code I had to fix was a mess and the technical aspects of the promotion procedures left something to be desired, like fucking documentation or a reasonable sense of consistency. I quickly came under the impression that the entire system is a very large and functional prototype. I've had very bad experiences with systems like this: they tend to be outgrown by demand extremely quickly and become a nightmare to maintain, forget about expand.

I really hate the three month probation period. It makes me anxious and paranoid. More than normal I mean.

That and I'm sick again which is getting on my tits. I've had two weeks in the past eight where I was reasonably healthy. The other six have been filled with tissues and Tylenol; snot and sniffing.

I'm a little grumpy today obviously.

Ahoy!

I signed up for sailing lessons! It goes four Saturdays in July, it's on a reservoir instead of the deep blue and there's a fairly good chance I'll do myself some kind of nautical harm. It'll be with L'il Bro' G which means I'll be giving him rides and why he encouraged me to sign up.

It was that or sky-diving. Considering the phrase "worse things happen at sea" I think I took the more dangerous of the two choices. Sailing is analog: all kinds of things can go wrong. Skydiving is digital: you hit the ground at a safe speed or you don't. Either way, there's a great potential for a splash.

Well it gets me out of the house. And that sounds somewhat morose but I'm actually excited about it. Far too many pirate games and naval history books lately for me not to try it out.

That's about it really. Work is work, home is boring (and messy, need to clean up this weekend), gym is going along fine, love life is dead and buried, books are being read, games are being played, movies are being watched and food is being eaten.

Wait, what am I talking about? I'm seeing Cake on Thursday and the Kids in the Hall on Saturday. Geez... I'm a reg'lar mover and shaker. Okay, nudger and slight vibrator.

Van

Back from Vancouver. It was about a 14-hour day but still wasn't bad. The conference was okay, it's always good to talk to other professionals (even for a few moments) to know that you're really in the same place as most everyone else.

Vancouver though is gorgeous. There were leaves on the trees, pretty girls, the smell of the ocean, droves of hot girls in spring outfits. Did I mention there are a lot of women there? Coming back to Calgary was a bit of a disappointment.

I discussed the very thing with L'il Bros G and B. All the brothers concur that Cowtown is a sausage-fest. It's kinda obvious when you notice it. Going out on the town, you see mostly males. I wonder if it's because Calgary is very much a suburbanites dream. Everyone moves to the suburban wasteland around here. The "cultural" centers are focused on drinking and finding those things associated with being drunk at 2AM.

I'm not moving anytime soon, but lets just say I'll be using my flight deals to go to the coast more than a few times.

Ooooh!

Crisis averted!. That is all.

Now What?

Sigh.

After having reported yesterday that I was happy, or at least not stressed, I now find myself a little bored. The usual distractions of computer games, movies and books have lost their luster. I know, it's only been one day but the ol' ADHD kicks in at the drop of a Ritalin.

The only reason I'm writing this is to spend (okay, waste) a couple of minutes.

Maybe that's a good thing? Maybe it'll get me to get off my butt and do all the stuff I keep putting off? Like, I dunno, drawing or writing or something. I had a passing fancy of buying a bass guitar and learning how to play. I mean I can't smoke continuously.

Idle hands are the devil's playings and all that. What about an idle mind. The Devil's Lego? Eesh.

How to Blind the Neighbors

Me wearing shorts. If it weren't the Wookie-like quality of my legs, I'd be blinding air-traffic.

So yeah, it's nice out, BBQ will be fired up in a couple of hours and all is pretty well with the world. I bet you never thought you'd read that here.

Big Blue is dead. I mean really dead, the whole motherboard is gone, not the AGP slot. Which means I'll have to figure out how to mount the old drives on Black Betty. I should probably rephrase that, but it's about the extent of my life right now.

So not much (again) to report. Maybe the key to happiness is being content with what you have? Nah, can't be that...

I may be going to Vancouver on Thursday for a one-day conference. I'll probably stick around for the weekend if I can, or at least Saturday. Hopefully they have some tall ships at the port. I'd love to have a look now that I know some nautical terminology.

Short and uneventful: now, I have to marinate a New York steak. And water the plants. Stress is now my bitch.

Trends Emerge

I've detecting a pattern. Whenever Moby goes to a social occasion where the average age of the group is twenty-five, Moby drinks 750ml of vodka.

Ugh.

Yesterday in the elevator I ran into one of my former co-op students. he lives in the same building as I do and he had a party yesterday and invited me along. I figured what the hell, better than spending an exciting evening archiving emails and music.

He's a geek, his girlfriend's a geek and all their friends are geeks. Young geeks, so I didn't feel 100% weird (say around 33.3% or so). I did manage to play Rock Band for the first time and it was fun. And I met a very cute, very smart very young chip designer for satellite systems (!) who is totally into Firefly, Guitar Hero, traveling and theatre. I thought she was single but after the fermented potato left my system this morning, I realized we looked at photos from Japan that were taken about a month ago with her boyfriend. I had some real self-delusion going there. There's a part of me that thinks they may have broke up since then. The retarded part who should be euthanized (with fermented potato).

Anyway, got my tax refund and I was correct down to the penny. So big, big bucks for Moby to pay off his new machine and enough to store for when I get to do the 20% of my salary, the company matches 100% thing next month. I did the budget for the next year and it's tight. Thankfully I have two months coming up this year containing 3 paychecks (bi-weekly pay). That and (hopefully) the company semi-annual bonus in November means I'll get away with it but have to cut my impulse spending a bit. A lot. Completely.

Which means I gotta stop going to Best Buy and buying things like: "Cloverfield" (never seen it, love it now), "Heat" (A classic), "Juno" (funny-quirky), "Pan's Labyrinth" (which I hadn't bought yet for some unknown reason), "Lars and the Real Girl" (quirky okay), and "Babylon 5" Season 3 (the geek in me of course). What can I say, I kinda panicked today. And watched two movies. And groaned a bit. And went to the gym. And felt old. Older.

Update: No responses from Craig's List. Which is not surprising as it turns out the email I created for it defaulted to "delete suspected junk email".

This Week

Considering the fact that we've had more winter in the past four weeks than we had all winter, it's no surprise that I have little to report. So here are the blog-bites.

I totally forgot that Big Blue's data drive is IDE and Black Betty (okay I have a thing for alliteration) runs ATA. Li'l Bro B suggested I pick up a decent external drive, transfer the files from Blue and just use that. So I picked up a 400Gb external drive. I'll be doing the file transfers this weekend. Gods know what I actually have on that drive besides my ripped CDs, resume stuff and, er, "artwork".

Work is going pretty well. A little emergency project yesterday that I was put in charge of (yes, scary) so I got to work and coordinate almost everyone on the team. It actually got me to open up a bit so my sense of humour came out. No complaints to human resources yet.

I think I'm finally at the tail-end of the cold I think Capa just got, after a bloody month. I know the pack-a-day didn't help but the thing knocked me on my kiester, which then got progressively bigger as working out was an exercise in frustration (see what I did there?).

Last, and hopefully least, I spazzed out and posted a personal ad on Craig's List. I know, I know, I said I'm not looking. It's sort of half social experiment, half the true start of the mid-life crisis. Considering all the hullaballo about finding free 'n' easy "encounters" on there, maybe I won't need the "artwork".

Enter the New Machine

Got my new machine! Thanks PC Perspective! I got the High end setup but switched the quad-core CPU (which is nice) with a faster (3.0 MHz) dual-core. It's a new gaming rig and very few games take advantage of multi-core systems. So I went hard.

I need to Igor my old data drive to get all my files so I'm left without bookmarks and music for a while. Big Blue (the old machine) will go into semi-retirement as ... something. Maybe a Linux distro of some kind is in order. Black Betty (the new machine) is a near top of the line, sleek black and burnished titanium like whiz kid. It only took forty minutes to install Windows (well, and about another hour to install all the security patches).

My "bench marking" so far has been loading games on and trying them out with all the graphic setting turned up to 11. So far, so amazing. Except I haven't gamed in so long my WASD hand is all cramped up....

Anyway, out with the old, in with the new! Now, what's worth playing? Um....

Plan-Like

So week three at the new "jorb" is complete and I'm still liking it. I was actually able to make a contribution this week (Look at me! I'm useful) and the awesome power of the ludicrous benefit package is beginning to dawn on me.

My fortieth birthday is gonna be sweet!

Provided the 25cm snow thing doesn't happen again this weekend, I'm cleaning up the BBQ, going to my favorite butcher and charring some prime bovine flesh.

I don't know if it's the Springtime coming on, or if I'm just bored but I feel certain urges coming to the fore. Barely contained needs are rising up like a million tones of sap pumping in an arboreal forest. The sweats, the thoughts that rip you from the task at hand and plunge you deep into a misty-eyed reverie that leads to rumination of the possible. A drive, as undeniable and as ancient as Time has taken hold of my very roots.

Yup, gonna get me a new computer this week.

Update: Yes, I did get my damage deposit (a larger portion than I expected) back from the old place. And yes, I just placed the order for my new PC.