Random 0

O Solo Gringo

2009-11-25T20:55:00.002-07:00

I'm back from Ixtapa!

Not a bad trip all said and done. The primary goal was to (finally) get my open water certification for scuba diving, which I managed. I liked the second day of diving (I just about threw up on the first) and if nothing else gives me something to do when I'm on my next vacation.

Last time on a beach I was riddled with angst, despair and loneliness (and turned 40). This time I just read all my books, got a tan instead of a burn, didn't drink nearly as much and just chillaxed. The days were filled with sitting on the beach, the night with, well, TV. That may sound like an odd thing to do, but since I don't watch TV at home, it (sorta if you think about it) makes sense on vacation.

Despite that, I think vacation nights would be much better bringing someone along. Traveling solo is usually undertaken by those who are outgoing, adventurous and make friends easily. In other words, the opposite of me, at least in that regard. I'm still going to do it, because lying on a beach and swimming in the ocean is relaxing and as I tend towards the hyper-tense, I need that sort of thing.

And next time I'm bring more books. I went through one just on the trip down there. Oh, and actually use the Spanish-language software I bought so it doesn't take me a week to figure out "On y dos" doesn't mean hello.

Coincidence?

2009-11-10T18:47:00.002-07:00

Got an email from Spike today after an eight months communication blackout. Which is weird because I was wondering what she was up to the other day when I was reviewing the blog.

I was actually pleasantly surprised. I think it has been about a year since we first met (or maybe off by a couple of weeks). Anyways, I'm wondering if she was doing a bit of a year-in-review herself. The note was brief, indicating that she had an interesting few months but "didn't want to bore you with the details".

Since I'm a nice guy I told her to bore away. Which kinda sounds like I'm encouraging her to make a career change to excavation or something now that I think about it. Anyways. I gave her the quick update (I've been working), asked her how the dogs are and that's about it. Should be interesting to see what she has to say but even more so, when she actually says it.

Would I see her again? It would depend on her of course. I still like Spike. She's one cool dudette. And with hindsight, I think we share a common personality quirk: too independent for our own good sometimes. That's about it really. Cautiously optimistic. Any kind of optimistic for me is progress.

We last left our hero.....

2009-11-08T11:08:00.001-07:00

I may be updating this again. But first I need to buy a new suit. Not that has anything to do with the blog itself but I still gotta.

Then again, I may not, depends how bored I am.....

Let me explain. Or rather, let me ramble and there should be a nugget of info or two in the verbal dross.

On Friday I was IM chatting with a co-worker, let's call her Chefette (again, a fake name to protect the innocent. Which probably means I'll have to cook up something for all my co-workers). We were discussing some stuff that happened over a group lunch (sushi) and somehow the conversation turned to writing. She complimented me on my writing ability (paltry at the moment) and asked if I had a blog, so naturally I referred her here. A little reluctantly as I mentioned I had taken a hiatus.

So, I went home and started reading the old entries. It is a classic writing trick: put something together, then put it a way for a while to get some distance. Pick it up again then cringe at spelling mistakes, mixed metaphors and general lack of any literary ability whatsoever. At least that has been my experience.

And there are some cringe worthy entries here. But there is also a pattern.

This entire endeavor was undertaken with two goals in mind:

Keep writing, no matter how innocuous the subject material.
Keep a kind of on-line diary so I could go back and see what my life was like "back then"

"Back Then" I'd say I was pretty depressed. A litany of "I'm sick, I'm bored, I'm stressed, I'm horny" were the obvious main themes. Up until about a year ago.

With hindsight almost as good as my 20/15 post-surgery peepers, I think it is fair to see that my lack of satisfaction at work (balls out full-of-hate at times) was more of a contributor (facilitator?) than I had previously thought. Physically, stress kills you immune system, so the string of cold after cold makes sense. The lack of motivation as well. And the boredom. And the frustration with everything Ad nauseum.

I'm doing pretty good now.

I am sick at the moment, but that's really because of the fact that I work for an airline. Haven't had a cold since last winter (although my stomach is still trying to kill me). Boredom is still a factor in my life but not as much as it had been. I'm getting out more (i.e. I'm getting out) and even though we just went through hell on a big project at work (with some additional infernal influence for the next while) reading what I had gone through in previous jobs really put it in context. It wasn't bad at all, all thing considered.

So I'm headed to Ixtapa the week after next (finally getting the darn SCUBA cert). This trip I'm actually going to do some of the things to get me out of the hotel bar: surfing, jungle canopy tour etc. Of course I may not, but only if I find something else to amuse myself. Oh, and I'm bringing SPF 60 and a paint roller this time.

The question of course is: am I going to keep this (Random 0) rolling? I don't know. It depends on whether or not I have something to say. Contentment after all is the absence of conflict, which drives almost all narrative. Not much of that around here.

Of course, next year I'm finally buying a house, so I'm sure that will add some pandemonium in my life. In the meantime, when I feel I have have something to say rather than just report, I'll come back here.

Mosey

2009-03-15T11:48:00.002-06:00

This is probably going to be my last blog for a while. Really, you should have seen it coming: the posts have been increasingly infrequent and shorter. To be honest I haven't had much to say lately.

Looking through my posts, this whole blog thing has been, for lack of a better term, a way to vent (although still going for the funny) and frankly I don't have much to vent about right now. Life is okay. Not grand but not too bad either. So really, I don't feel the new to spew digital vitriol on a semi-daily basis anymore.

Of course, there's still the day-to-day little nuances that make me red in the face but I can only complain about traffic, the inconsistencies of upper management, the vagaries of dating in my middle age (Dark Age?) so often before even I'm tired of hearing it. You were probably sick of it a long while ago.

Maybe this is a healthy step for me. Or maybe it's just that feeling of contentment and safety that occurs right before the escaped mental patient sticks a knitting needle in your eyeball. Hey, I said I'm content, not an optimist.

So thanks to all who checked in on a semi-regular basis. Here's hoping some of my life's follies made you laugh, maybe made you think (long shot) or at least gave you a two-minute diversion now and again.

I may be back though. Life (and blogging) is like that.

Cheers!
Moby

Song & Dance

2009-03-01T18:48:00.003-07:00

Alright, I'll get to what I promised in a sec but first a rant (you knew that was coming).

Steam: ever since Capa sung the praises, the Steam online games store has been insinuating itself into my gaming habits. With the good stuff coming at half-price if you wait long enough and some decent casual games coming in at under twenty bucks, I've found there's no need for me to go to the video game store. It wasn't a great need in recent times as the number of PC titles on the shelves there have dwindled to a mere handful but none the less.

However I recently picked up Puzzle Quest: Galactrix which is of course the sequel to Puzzle Quest. Now, after I got the original title I ranted that it cheated. And it does. But once you get past that (which took me a while) it's not a bad game.

Galactrix on the other hand possesses a new, enhanced version of the cheat engine which makes it such a frustration to play it's aggravated my Turrette's Syndrome to "driving on the Deerfoot in rush hour" levels. So it got uninstalled. Without going into any detail, let's just say that if a game developer has to resort to the kind of bald-face, obvious, cheating-like-a-bitch cop-outs to make a game seem challenging, I hope they all get laid off and have to go dumpster diving for hospital trash for a living.

Ahem.

So, last week. I finally managed to get the weekend scuba boot camp done sans dreaded-disease. It was good. Not great but good. I do want to actually try out the whole schtick underwater because a ten-foot vat of chlorine may not give the same experience as a coral reef. With that in mind, I'm attempting to snag a last minute deal to go somewhere tropical the following week but things look iffy. Not that there aren't places to go, but the phrase "cost based on double occupancy" is damaging my calm. I could get the services of a high-end escort and fly both of us to a five star resort for a week at the same cost of me going by myself. Seriously. I know that a hotel room is the same cost if it's one person or two but the savings of a flight and a bit of the food etc should shave off a bit. The fact that in some cases it was actually less money if I booked for two people rather than just myself really steams me.

Sorry, that was another rant.

On the bright side, David Byrne was amazing. Four encores. An amazing performer without a doubt and always money well spent. I also was dragged out by Kiki to a local band performing at a wonderful little dive. Their repertoire is pretty much classics from the sixties to the eighties but that ain't a bad thing if you're looking for music your familiar with. That's the whole appeal I think: the crowd there was composed of folks who heard it all when it was fresh and new (and I'm starting to trundle int that bracket) but they seemed like they were having a blast, which is what it's all about really.

I was the designated driver (and Kiki owes me for that) but it actually fit my mood quite well and I had a good time. Of course I always wonder at Kiki's motivations: she has all these single girlfriends and tends to make a point of "he's not with me". Which I pretty much translate as "look ladies, fresh meat". Not exactly a bad thing but I still ain't looking, so I hate to get their hopes up. And yes I need to get over myself.

Stay Tuned!

2009-02-23T17:32:00.001-07:00

The final resolution! Underwater wackiness! The Former Head of Talking Heads!

But right now I'm too busy to go into any kind of detail. Soon, my precious....

Steamed

2009-02-13T19:46:00.002-07:00

Another week and no news. On the thing. You know. The lump. So that's good, but there's still the "discomfort" I'm experiencing. And I think I may have figured that out as well.

I've been working out lately. Well, okay for the past ten years, but the past year I've been running. So follow along Moby's Patented Spurious Logic (Patent Pending):

First, the soft fatty tissues on my inner thighs started to be used up, reducing the radius of my upper thighs: therefore I bought new (smaller) pants.
I started growing muscle beneath the fatty tissues, thereby expanding said radius: therefore things got tight.
The, er, subject on the side where "my ears hang low" is where I'm feeling the pain.
Ergo, I've been compressing one of my boys every time I sit down. Thus the swelling.

Let me guess, too much information. Well that's okay because I'm going to consider the matter closed as soon as I go buy some parachute pants.

I had totally forgotten that I had tried the demo for Sins of a Solar Empire a while back. But I tried it again anyways. Still don't like it. But since Steam just put Left 4 Dead on at half price, I'm downloading it now. Zomb-Aid, biatches!

Waiting Game

2009-02-08T20:24:00.003-07:00

Okay so I haven't heard anything yet. Call me paranoid (knew I could count on you Capa) but I'll feel much more comfortable next weekend.

I'll keep you posted. In the meantime, I'll be considering what game to buy next. Maybe Sins of a Solar Empire. Heard it's good...

Why Are We Waiting?

2009-02-03T19:37:00.002-07:00

Still no news yet. Still waiting. You know if this process hadn't taken about a month to get to this point, I'd say that's a good thing. But with the incredibly laconic response time of the medical profession I've experienced in this province, I'll start to be cautiously optimistic next Monday.

And since I'm re-scheduled to take my scuba course this weekend, I'm catching a cold. Of course.

On the good news side, our new office space is quite amazing. Had a tour of the fitness center today and it doesn't suck. And considering some of the women on the tour, it certainly bodes well for the gym experience days of yore (remember Red Sonja?). Provided I don't get something removed, which means I won't be interested in the gym or the patrons. I know, positive thinking.

But ya gotta admit it would prey on your mind as well.

So I've been distracting myself with gaming. Specifically, Defence Grid: The Awakening. I've never been a huge fan of tower defense games, but the presentation and 3D-ness, not to mention the pure logical thinking, is a lot of fun. I'm starting to see why Capa made such a fuss about Steam. And for $20, it certainly is in the "impulse buy" price-range.

And I gave LOTRO another go (I had three weeks left) but ended up uninstalling again. It really was just a World of Warcraft wanna be and frankly WoW wither bores me (repetitive) or annoys the hell out of me (the other players). All I can really say is that they took a very, very respected and rich milieu and white-washed it with mediocrity. 'Nuff Said.

Except I'm kinda miffed at the way the downloadable content for Fallout 3 was presented. You have to be a member of Live for Windows. You have to purchase "points" for the content (and of course you have to buy more points than the content is worth) and from what I've been reading you need to do some serious computer configuration to get to the point where you can even download it. Seriously: I want to give them money in exchange for a product. They (Live) seemed to forget that a basic exchange of legal tender for the goods and services desired for purchase has been going on for centuries. You name a price, if I agree to said price I give you legal tender and in exchange you give me what I am buying.

Can't quite seem to do that in this situation. They have made it too complicated (well, okay annoying) and the price is significantly higher than stated in real world terms (ie money). Ergo, I give them no cash, they give me no product and I go spend it on something else offered by an entity that understands these simple, well accepted principles of consumerism.

And no, I'm not going to go download it. At some point, they will be releasing a couple more of these expansions (hopefully they will have figured out how to provide them) and eventually wrapping them into a single bundle on a physical medium which I will purchase from a retailer. Maybe.

Scanned

2009-01-27T19:20:00.002-07:00

Well, I had the ultrasound on the giblets today. I'm proud to say that I was calm, cool and collected. Well, except when driving to the clinic. I'm never calm cool, nor collected when I'm behind the wheel. Anyways, not a painful experience by any means.

However I have come to the conclusion that I will never, ever date someone in the health care industry for the simple reason that I could not handle that the person I'm with handles ... bits ... all day so nonchalantly. There's gotta be some mystery you know?

Speaking of which, the results go to my doctor in two to three business days. The Doc said they would call me if something shows up, so I'm going to jump out of my skin every time the phone rings. Which means once or twice in the next week. Of course it may be worse that they don't call if it's good news. I'll still be paranoid if I get a call a month from now.

It all kind of sucks though: I have the scuba lessons the weekend after next and I really want to use the training to go swimmin' with bow-legged wimmin somewhere down south. But it's the kind of situation where you can't really make any kind of long term plans. Cuz you never know. I've been reading up (gods bless the Internet) and if they find something, there a whole of laundry list of what that "something" could be. Most involve surgery. Which scares the hell out of me. Not because of the surgery itself, but I've been watching too much Scrubs lately and, well, I worry about mistakes. Like waking up and finding they took out my kidney .Although it wouldn't be as bad as the poor bastard who was supposed to get the kidney operation.

So I'm taking my usual "if it's the worst thing that can happen, it's already happened so there's nothing you can do about it" attitude with the occasional panic attack.

You know, the everyday routine mind-set of Moby.

And in Other News....

2009-01-18T14:12:00.003-07:00

A bit of follow-up on Spike:

She did eventually email me back. Apparently, giving her Fallout 3 for the X-Box 360 freaked her out a bit but me wanting to kiss her (and we had kissed before) freaked her out a lot. We're exchanging the occasional email, but that's as far as it goes. Didn't work out like I had wanted it to, but few things do.

And now, back to gaming:

World of Goo has me hooked. Available on Steam for $20, it's a physics puzzler with some amazing gameplay. A great source of fun! Proof positive that taking a simple concept, wrapping in some creativity in the presentation and viola! you have a great game! Or a musical instrument, I can never remember which.

Speaking of Fallout 3, I'm waiting anxiously for the new downloadable content on Jan 27th. I may get sidetracked by other things (see last post) but if nothing else, I'm easily distracted.

So much so that I went and got Lord of the Rings Online. Yeah, yeah, another MMO after I said I swore off them but I was bored. Okay so far but I can see myself canceling after the free month is done. It's really just more of the same.

Oh! And this looks cool.

And that's about it really. A lame update, but just so everyone knows my so-called life still goes on.

Update: Wow, that didn't take long. Just uninstalled LOTRO after about 6 hours play. That's beats the record set by EVE Online...

How Can I Put This?

2009-01-15T17:29:00.002-07:00

Er, okay, so. Well. Ummmm....

Okay, I'll come right out with it: I found a lump. On the left one.

This happened last weekend I while I was trying to figure out why I had a recurring ache in ... that area. I had thought that since this happens when I run a lot, and when I stopped running it went away, it had something to do with running. So I did the ol' Internet search.

So when I discovered that this could be a symptom of testicular cancer, I learned very quickly how to do a self-exam. And sure enough....

So I went to my local drop-in medical clinic and waited. And waited. And waited. And was told to go home as they were closing soon. Come back the next day.

So I went the next evening. And waited. And waited some more. And told to go home again.

So the next morning, I called in sick, went to the clinic and waited, but not as much. The doctor did her thing (yes, her, which was actually not a problem) and said that it should be checked out.

So I have an ultrasound in two weeks. Two weeks was the soonest I could get one. Trust me, I shopped around.

And so, I'm waiting and worrying. It's probably nothing, statistically speaking. But of course you tend to worry that it could be the worst: it's going to kill you; or the second worst: the cure is so bad you might as well be dead.

Regardless, if there is something there that shouldn't be, it's knifey-knifey slicey-slicey time. And since the doctor will be "in the area" anyways, I'm going to ask to get my tubes tied: Two stones with one bird.

See? I can even make bad jokes when I'm terrified!

Update on Lack of Updates

2009-01-12T21:23:00.002-07:00

I know, I know. But something ... significant ... may be brewing. No not that. No, not that either.

This is new.

And scary.

You'll know when I do.

Habits & Cravings

2009-01-04T14:30:00.003-07:00

But first, I got rear-ended today. I was attempting to turn left on my way to the gym, but two factors made me stop:

The idiot in the pickup truck coming on my right was doing about 60 in a 30 (playground) zone and swerved into the lane I was turning into and
the slurry of snow and dirt made my tires spin without even hitting the accelerator

Which of course meant I had to stop.

The guy in the pick-up truck behind me was also going way too fast for road conditions, slid on the previously mentioned mush and wham!. Actually more like thunk. Got out, assessed the damage (none, not even scratched paint), told the guy "No harm, no foul". He seemed quite relieved. He was pretty apologetic too, which just goes to show, sometimes accidents just happen regardless of how cautious/incautious a driver is. I was a bit shaken but not stirred. Besides, the adrenaline rush made for a good work-out.

But back to the title: Now that my six weeks of working part-time (due to being forced to take my remaining vacation before year end) is finally at an end so I need to get used to working five days a week again. May be tough: I'm nat'r'lly a slacker. Obviously. Of course it's starting with a month/quarter/year end with added complications due to good if short-sighted business decisions over the holiday season. So I better get used to it again real damn quick. Gonna have fun next week.

This weekend though was punctuated by two odd "cravings". I had the sudden urge to flop on the couch, turn on the tube and watch TV. I don't have cable and peasant-vision (ie broadcast television) is non-existent in my building. Weird. I tossed the cable over a year ago and didn't miss it until now. "Miss" may also be too-strong a word, but sometimes you just want to veg out watching the boob-tube. I'd consider going for basic cable except that it's still too expensive and the fact that any time the cable company tries to do anything I lose my Internet for a week.

The second craving hit me last night: very abruptly and with no warning, I wanted a Coca-Cola. I actually wanted it so bad I could, quite literally, taste it. So I went to the local Mac's (and on this one rare occasion, was not accosted by homeless looking for handouts) and got myself a litre. Came home, filled a glass with ice, poured my self a tall one and man it tasted good. The rest of it is sitting in the fridge now, probably until it looses all its fizz.

I'm not a pop (soda, soft drink, whatever) person. Very odd considering my ravenous sweet-tooth. If I do drink it, it's at a restaurant and it's ginger ale. Mostly because you get charged the same amount for a thimble of rancid orange juice at a restaurant as you do for a full litre at the grocery store. So for me, that was a bit weird.

As for habits, like the work-thing, I need to get back into going to the gym at least four times a week. Christmas is always bad for that due to time constraints, lousy weather and in my case, being a member of a gym located in a mall. I could say that I reduced my frequency due to spending time with Spike, but since we only saw each other five times over two months, that would be a bald-faced lie.

Oh yeah, that's pretty much over with by the way. Not sure why, but she wants me to go away. She didn't actually say anything because she hasn't returned my calls. She did mention when we started out that she prefers to just ignore a guy when it isn't working for her as she "doesn't like conflict". So I went away (that's what I told her answering machine at any rate). I said that if this was the case, not to call me back. Easy for her, and closure for me.

Too bad really: I do like her, but I'm getting that the timing is lousy and that she's not really ready for dating yet. At all. Of course I'm also sure that it's something I did/said/didn't say/didn't do but trying to figure out what is a good way to make your brain asplode. This is one of the principle reasons why I'm out of it, the whole dating thing. But you knew that (as I've mentioned it on numerous occasions here).

The other habit is of course, nicotine! I've re-signed-up for SCUBA courses again and there's the same concern that my lung capacity is exceeded by the volume of a Kinder Surprise egg. We'll see I guess, but right now I'll just consider cutting down a bit. This will be assisted by the recently enacted law whereby establishments that have a pharmacy on-site cannot sell tobacco products. Kind of makes sense (in a were-going-to-ban-it-without-banning-it kind of way). On the other hand, if there's such a health concern, why not outlaw selling things like pop, chips, candy, bacon etc from these same stores? I guess they'll do that the day they have a picture of a dead fat bastard with his shirt off on a pack of Ding-Dongs.

Well, the end-effect is that I can't get my carton of smokes from the usual places (the grocery stores) that I go to as part of the routine. Which means that the only places I can get cigarettes now are gas stations and convenience stores, which all charge about a buck a pack more than the grocers did. But since gas is now at about half the price it was six months ago, I'm good.

And now, back into the routine/habit that I haven't had a change in: computer games! Maybe next time, I'll do a 2008 wrap up on my view of the state of gaming. Which reminds me, the habit of blogging more than the inane details of my unremarkable existence? Ain't gonna happen....

Vote "NO" on Resolution 2009!

2009-01-01T14:34:00.002-07:00

Happy New Year one and sundry!

As I sit here and digest the MSG-laden Dim Sum meal I grazed at for the past two hours, I ruminate over the year that was known only as "2008". So what happened?

I only moved once! That beats last year and the year before! Hopefully I'll bring that down to 0 in 2009.
The new job! And for the first time in a decade, I'm actually enjoying it. The benefits are amazing and hey, the bonuses aren't too shabby either. Here's hoping I don't get fired in 2009!
Waist shrinkage! The running program I've tried has reduced the 36 inch waist down to a svelt 34 incher. Hitting forty means I gotta work to stop what weight I do gain pooling in the middle bits of me. In 2009, I feel confident enough to go scuba diving without being mistaken for a miniature whale.
Romance! Well, kinda. I'm thinking Spike isn't as interested in me as I was in her, as she hasn't returned my phone calls since Xmas. In 2009, I'll be resuming my "I don't date" policy. And to think I passed up a tumble with a flight attendant at the Xmas party cuz I'm a "nice guy"...
Travel! The Hawaii trip was just the beginning of the Mid-Life Crisis Tour. '09 will a see trips to the Dominican and Cancun for the express purposes of scuba diving and looking at young women in bikinis.
Education! I didn't take any classes last year, but this summer I'll be taking one of a) motorcycle operation b) gun safety course or c) sky diving. Depends on my mood. Naturellment this is merely an extension of the Mid-Life Crisis activities.

So over all, 2008 wasn't a fantastic year but over all I'd say it was better than the previous. 2009 looks to be "more of the same" as I'll be saving up for the big event in 2010: real estate.

My resolution for 2009? Nada. they never work anyways.

Falalala--la-la-la-laffle!

2008-12-24T16:16:00.002-07:00

'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

2008-12-21T11:37:00.002-07:00

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

2008-12-16T18:45:00.003-07:00

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

2008-12-14T15:07:00.003-07:00

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

2008-11-28T23:45:00.003-07:00

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 ...

2008-11-18T17:35:00.002-07:00

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.

2008-11-16T21:47:00.002-07:00

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...

2008-11-09T16:00:00.003-07:00

... 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

2008-11-02T12:18:00.002-07:00

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

2008-10-29T16:02:00.002-06:00

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

2008-10-18T12:17:00.005-06:00

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...

2008-10-13T20:15:00.002-06:00

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!

2008-10-04T21:32:00.003-06:00

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

2008-09-27T14:01:00.003-06:00

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

2008-09-18T06:42:00.003-06:00

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

2008-09-18T06:42:00.002-06:00

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

2008-09-13T14:10:00.003-06:00

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

2008-09-07T08:56:00.002-06:00

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

2008-08-31T23:38:00.004-06:00

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...

2008-08-25T17:55:00.003-06:00

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

2008-08-23T18:15:00.003-06:00

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

2008-08-21T20:56:00.003-06:00

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!

2008-08-16T14:31:00.003-06:00

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'

2008-08-07T16:40:00.002-06:00

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

2008-08-04T10:35:00.003-06:00

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!

2008-08-01T19:37:00.002-06:00

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!

2008-07-31T08:52:00.002-06:00

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

2008-07-22T20:03:00.002-06:00

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!"

2008-07-15T21:29:00.002-06:00

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

2008-07-14T19:14:00.004-06:00

As usual, my timing is impeccable:

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.
Was the first at work this morning and discovered that most of the weekend processes didn't.
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.
I had to (and still am) running month end for the third time this month because of, well, I don't know really.
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

2008-07-13T14:48:00.002-06:00

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

2008-07-09T21:49:00.002-06:00

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!

2008-07-06T11:26:00.002-06:00

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:

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.
The women who are strong, funny and fun think I'm a dork.
The women who are socially inept shut-ins with strange skin conditions throw themselves at me.
No matter how extensive the character creation engine is, I'm still ugly.
When I'm in charge, expect any order issued to be ignored in favor of standing and staring at a crate.
Pointing a vehicle in the direction yo wish to go and hitting the gas will get you there eventually.
No matter where you go, someone else got there first and will charge you a fee to enter. Or just shoot at you.
Blasting zombies with a "boom-stick" is great fun no matter what the age, epoch, universe and cause of zombie-ism.
The exact item you need will be in the store the moment you can't afford it.
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

2008-06-23T17:59:00.005-06:00

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

2008-06-22T13:43:00.002-06:00

And now my whinging has some scientific proof.

Drop It

2008-06-21T17:21:00.002-06:00

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

2008-06-17T18:28:00.003-06:00

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

2008-06-15T13:58:00.003-06:00

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!

2008-06-09T15:06:00.003-06:00

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!

2008-06-08T08:44:00.002-06:00

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!

2008-05-31T09:24:00.003-06:00

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?

2008-05-28T18:02:00.002-06:00

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!"

2008-05-26T18:39:00.003-06:00

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

2008-05-25T11:45:00.003-06:00

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

2008-05-24T17:15:00.002-06:00

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

2008-05-17T19:36:00.002-06:00

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

2008-05-14T18:37:00.003-06:00

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!

2008-05-13T19:08:00.002-06:00

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

2008-05-10T21:42:00.003-06:00

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!

2008-05-06T20:54:00.000-06:00

Crisis averted!. That is all.

Now What?

2008-05-05T20:17:00.002-06:00

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

2008-05-04T15:31:00.002-06:00

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

2008-04-27T15:57:00.003-06:00

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

2008-04-24T18:38:00.002-06:00

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

2008-04-16T21:52:00.003-06:00

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

2008-04-11T17:44:00.003-06:00

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.

Return of the Return

2008-04-06T16:12:00.002-06:00

After going over my taxes and re-doing it three times, I'm getting back (wait for it) $4200+. The plan was to buy the parts for a new gaming rig with the return. Now it's to buy parts for a nw gaming rig, a new monitor and hire a French maid.

Filed Life

2008-04-05T18:28:00.003-06:00

It's tax season! While this usually inspires fear, loathing, hatred and confusion, this year is a little more interesting. Most years I have three forms to worry about: the one indicating income and taxes deducted, the one with my RRSP contribution statement and the remaining student loan interest (last year for that! Yay!).

This year though it was two jobs, two sets of RRSP forms, the tax form and other sundries. Moving twice and having two jobs last year made things ... confusing. I think I found almost everything (except for an RRSP form dammit).

In finding all these bits of paper, I purged my old files. I had tax returns going back to 1995. Not a biggie but stuffed in all those papers were a few things of note:

Cards, notes, tokens etc from ex-girlfriends (before the had the prefix appended of course). A tad depressing, but also a good reminder of the times that were better than the end.
My official censure notice of one of the "bad ol' days" of a former employer. At the time it threw me for a loop. Long story short, I was told I had a week to deliver something that should have been a month, it was critical to the business and there was a bug in the code. One bug. My boss at the time threw me to the wolves. It said I didn't take the time to test, that I didn't follow written standards (I remember asking where these were as I had never seen them. That did not help my case) and that my work was incomplete. This was dated two months after my annual review which stated I had "exceeded expectations" in all but two categories (and those I merely met). Looking back on it now I should have quit right there and then. I kept that notice to identify the precise moment in time I turned into a bitter curmudgeon.
My old school papers. Yes some of them were official (I kept the one showing I was one Fine Arts class short of a BSc Computer Science) but I had found some of the stuff from my college radio days. No pictures (I don't remember having my picture taken in those four years) but the radio guides, posters etc. The Rock and Roll years.

Mugged in Memory Lane nearing my fortieth.

So what's left is to do the actual taxes. I won't worry about the missing RRSP: I'll request a new form and do it in next years taxes. What with bonuses, profit share and purchase plans, I'm going to need the break with the new job.

Provided no one throws me to the wolves of course.

More Fun With Landlords

2008-04-04T19:31:00.002-06:00

Just as I (think) I resolved the missing damage deposit, my new landlord has thrown me a whopper.

I found a note in my door indicating I was late with April's rent, that a report notice has been sent to a credit rating company and that I owe an additional $50 late fee. This was after last month's note that the processing of my application for pre-authorized payment had not been submitted to the bank for March's rent so could I please write them a cheque.

I gave them the pre-authorized withdrawal form in January. It is now April.

So I went to the building office (with all notes etc in hand) but the land-lady wasn't in, just her assistant. So she copied all the relevant info. I'll talk to the landlady tomorrow.

Mistakes happen: running a large apartment building is an exercise in frustration I'm very sure. So I'm hoping this can be worked out amicably. I'll give them a cheque for April when I see evidence that the credit report notice has been revoked. I'll also be asking for the pre-authorized withdrawal form back and giving them post-dated cheques. This little incident has not instilled any kind of confidence that when I vacant the building the auto-withdrawal of my rent will stop.

If things cannot be handled amicably, well I'll take it up with the management company and see what happens then.

Kinda Sorta Maybe

2008-04-03T19:25:00.002-06:00

Having one of those blah kind of days. I'm on day four of a cold, I'm bored and a little antsy about work. Not in a bad way, just want to get something accomplished. It would help if I had my developer-strength computer but that's just a waiting game.

Speaking of which, since I'm bored, lemmee tell ya about my dating situation.

Nada.

Which is actually intentional. I'm pretty damn sure I explained the whole "not looking" thing before, but what the hell it bears repeating. I'm not looking. Well, I'm looking at women of course, but I'm not pursuing any kind of relationship whatsoever. Not like the opportunity has presented itself, but at least this way I can convince myself it's my idea and not a long-running cruel joke played by the universe.

All of the relationships I've had have been, at some point, unsatisfactory. And yes I know I'm the common element so I'm just removing that particular parameter. Now if the universe presents me with a golden opportunity, I'd be a fool not to take it. But I'd be a greater fool to actually think it will happen thus I'm handing in the towel. Politely, and with no rancour.

The relationship part I'm good with. It's the whole pressure to perform that leads up to that point. It all comes down to expectations, and frankly now that I have none, I'm good. Well, better at any rate. There's of course the whole es-ee-ex thing to consider but I never said it was a perfect plan.

Week the First

2008-03-30T14:44:00.003-06:00

Well the first week at the new job went, er, well. Like I suspected, a week of reading and getting to know peoples names. Kinda dull but to be expected after all.

I should mention that I now work for an airline. Because the employees get a pretty decent discount on flights they fly every-which-way as often as they can. Meaning of course they bring back a continent's (and places further) worth of diseases, so yes I'm sick again. However because of this everyone has advice on what to do to prevent getting caught by a bug.

However laminating myself gets... uncomfortable.

Next week I have a two-day "drink-the-koolaid" session which should prove interesting. As stated, I'm working for an airline so much of the new hire intake will be flight attendants. Flight attendants! This has a cheesy early-sixties road-movie theme written all over it. I just hope I'm the crooner and not the mal-adjusted goof in this one.

Yeah, yeah, I know. Hey Laaaaaadyyyyyyyy!

On the home front I still haen't received the balance of my $1045 damage deposit from my old place. The management company keeps giving me the run around. They didn't send it, then they said they did send it but couldn't tell me where. Then they said they had problems. Enough. Monday I'm telling them to cancel the cheque and re-issue another one. It would not shock me in the least if this was standard operating procedure for these slum-lords. But that's way to much money to let slide.

Speedy Day

2008-03-29T13:15:00.003-06:00

Alright, I will describe my first week at work but today's schedule is somewhere in the "insane" realm. I'll see what I can do tomorrow.

In the meantime, fans of Tiki Bar TV may enjoy this (Not safe for work by any means). I know I did.

But It's My First Day...

2008-03-24T17:38:00.002-06:00

First day at the new grind!

And not bad at all actually. Despite lacking a PC manufactured this century, I had the usual "Read this. And this. And some of these..." kind of day. The first day on the new job is always a bit awkward: you have no idea what you are doing, you don't have an access card so you need to knock on doors and look forlornly through the little window, you meet people whose names you instantly forget. Well, not Capa. He bought me two coffees today which I'm assuming is a bribe to keep quiet about previous jobs.

The only thing that I'm still unsure about is the commute. For the past four years I've been taking the heel-and-toe express and driving to work on a daily basis is still one of those things in the "Con" column. For instance, we had a sudden blizzard this morning, and on the way home, I crawled past two accidents and had to come to a sudden stop because the car driver in front of me decided to get out of his vehicle for no obvious reason. It's thirty minutes one way which means I need to get my ass out of bed thirty minutes earlier (or at least stop hitting the snooze button.

Not to mention the price of gas. Hooboy.

However the benefits of driving means I can do those little things I normally do after work right after work. Before I'd come home, make dinner, check email etc. then go do the running around or go to the gym. I can do that on the way home now so my whole evening isn't shot.

So for this week my evenings will be filled with BSG Season 3.

Geek out!

All in all I think it was a very good day.

Wisdom of the Ancients

2008-03-16T13:59:00.006-06:00

So I'm probably going to have to change the "thirty-something" in this blog's banner and replace it with a new number in a couple of months.

My Mom is freaking out about more than I am, so that's, er, well I'm not sure what that is. I feel immature.

I noticed lately that time has been doing it's ravaging thing. It started with the ski trip in February. I already reported that things were broken, I ain't as young as I used to be etc ad nauseum but there was also something from that trip that turned out a bit odd.

Now since I was with the "young 'uns", most of them posted pictures on Facebook. The pictures of me seemed to have something wrong with the colour, or light or something but in almost all of them there was a yellow tinge in my face around the cheeks.

I first thought it was just something to do with the photos. Then I noticed that once in a while there was a hint of yellow in my features when viewing my mug in a mirror. I then put it down to the ravages of tobacco consumption and started to scrub a bit harder in the mornings. It was still there.

Now understand that as rule I am not fond of the medical profession. There is a history with myself and with my family of being victims of medical malpractice, usually involving major surgery. Two years ago there was the whole strep throat debacle, but that was the latest in a long string of medical practitioners who frankly need more practice (but not on me thank you very much).

I tend to self diagnose. The internet is wonderful for that. And most of the time I'm dead on. That was probably the wrong choice of words.

Anyways, I believe I 1) am a bit anemic and B) probably have a touch of scurvy. Sounds ridiculous but all the symptoms point to it. Lack of energy, receding gums, yellowing of skin, lack of energy, cts taking a long time to heal etc. Yes, I hear you say "a pack a day may have something to do with that Moby" and you're right, but like most things there isn't just one cause.

I'm not the best cook in the world. I'm not the worst cook in the world. To qualify for either category one must actually cook and therefore I'm disqualified. I've always had to be careful of my diet because of my wonderfully dysfunctional stomach (I get heartburn looking at a Caesar salad) and that may have been part of the issue. So I'm branching out in the culinary department a bit more.

I've attempted to balance my diet a bit: granola vs Fruit Loops, eating actual fruit (again, not Fruit Loops), stopping my Wine Gum addiction, taking a multi-vitamin and iron supplement (for the anemia) etc. This has been going on for a week and I'm starting to feel better already. Admittedly, I'm just getting over a two-week-and-counting cold and busted ribs but I'm taking it as a good sign.

Yeah, the smoking thing is going be around for a while though, sorry. I don't want to be so healthy that I make myself sick.

Half Way Between

2008-03-13T17:31:00.004-06:00

One week after giving notice, one week before the new job means I'm halfway to out. For anyone who has recently quit a job, the "interim" between the two manifests some odd behaviours.

There's the melancholy that occurs as you realize probably won't see most of the people you spent half your waking hours with ever again. Not that they are bad people but life tends to work that way.

There's the sheer joy that soon, you won't have to deal with this person or that situation.

There's the impulse to slack off and just mark time because in a very short while, it won't matter anymore. Then there is the (hopefully) accompanying work ethic drive to do it right (whatever "it" is) and to leave with good last impression.

There's the uncertainty that you may have made the wrong move, and the certainty that you have done the best thing for yourself. These can, and often, occur at the exact same time.

There's the heartfelt congratulatory regards, usually accompanied by a sadness to see you go. Then there are others who have already dialed you out of their reality.

Then there's all the bloody forms to fill out....

A Lazy Weekend

2008-03-09T20:36:00.003-06:00

Well, not really. Just the first one where the schedule wasn't booked to overflowing. I managed to unpack the last of the boxes, do laundry, clean the place, wash the car, get a haircut, drop off the dry-cleaning and all those other sundry chores that I've been neglecting for the last month.

Surprisingly I found that relaxing.

I'm feeling much more at home here than at the last place. The final touch is when I violate the terms of my lease and hammer nails into walls to put up pictures. Sometimes the pace just fits you.

And I've usually called home "The Fortress of Solitude" but I'm thinking it'll just be "The Roost". I have a great view of the south of the city and all the drug deals going on in the fast-food joint's parking lot. As long as they are quiet deals I don't mind terribly.

So new place, new job. Next: new girlfriend.

Actually, forget it, I just wanna relax a bit....

Step One: New Apartment. Step Two: New Job

2008-03-06T21:11:00.003-07:00

Yup, new place of employment. But since technically this is an anonymous blog, I won't say where, but will say it's the same place (and same building and floor) as Capa. And many thanks to him for recommending me for the job despite all obvious and plentiful evidence to the contrary.

I'm excited about the new job, but resigning the current job kinda sucked. It's not even close to being as, well, mind-numbingly frustrating as the previous one. A very significant part of me is sad to see me go. I built up a team of great folks and despite one project from hell, was doing pretty well.

But the new job gets me out of lower-middle management and puts me back into cutting code. It's a senior position so there will naturally be some of the shenanigans that happen in any hierarchy, but it should be localized.

I get to cut code again!

Just (Another) One of Those Days

2008-03-03T20:10:00.003-07:00

Fargin' Blargin'.

Two and half hours OT at work tonight because I needed to install an emergency patch to some software I didn't know we had. Super-duper rush on it for various reasons, but as usual it only affected one person (a VP granted but still). And even after that it didn't fix the problem. So back at it again tomorrow. Grumble.

It's a Microsoft Product so it shouldn't have come as a surprise.

Normally, this is part of the everyday in the glamorous world of Information technology. the timing is just off, that's all. Since I spent the weekend in Medicine Hat I didn't get a chance to do things like grocery shop or do laundry. Or actually relax as this was supposed to be the first weekend in about a month where I wasn't packing, moving, cleaning, unpacking or otherwise occupied.

And i can feel a monster cold coming on. Sigh. Or should I say, "digh". Eesh.

But! maybe the good news I've been hinting at will come through on the morrow. It will mean a period of, well, let's just say to get the good I gotta dish out some bad which will suck. All for a good cause though.

I'm off to chug a gallon of orange juice as I believe I have a borderline case of scurvy. Seriously, I think I'm playing too many pirate-themed games lately.

Update: Oh yeah, I have a cold of epic proportions. Gah...sniff

More Random Encounters

2008-02-27T18:20:00.002-07:00

The old place is clean! Well, it's at the point where I frankly lost interest in scrubbing. Only one place I've ever rented at actually was fair about returning the damage deposit, and trust me if these guys do the inspection they way they rent apartments (get money, spend none of it) I can probably kiss the deposit good-bye.

On to random encounters. The coffee shop I frequent at lunch is kinda of a old hippy place. Organic three bean salad, recycled paper cups the whole works. Consequently there is a large population of old hippies. Now that's a generation I generally consider to be "ineffective" at this stage of it's life (previous stages being "arrogant", "hypocritical" and "greedy beyond belief").

Since I'm in there nearly every day, I've learned that these folks stand at the food displays they hum and haw, trying to decide between the whole-grain macaroni and macro-biotic cheese and the organically-grown vegetable salad. This can take forever. So when I see this awesome display of total indecision, I jump ahead to the actual line up of people who know what they want ends.

Yesterday at lunch, this situation did indeed occur. There was a couple doing exactly that: waffling about what they wanted. Fortunately (or at least I thought at the time) there was nobody at the till ordering so I naturally went up and ordered my americano.

It was while I was waiting for my brew that I heard someone talking awfully loud at a tome that indicated righteous indignation. I then realized that they were talking to me.

Apparently there was someone standing behind the pair of former hippies. She gave me a little lecture that, in summary, said I was rude for cutting into line. I told here that I didn't see a line, only people deciding what they wanted. She really didn't like that answer. She went on but my coffee was ready so I switched her off.

Now I fully admit that technically I cut in line. But since the line started about ten feet away from where you actually order, I see it as a line in potentia and not a manifest queue. Sure, I felt a little guilty, but that's mitigated by the look of smug, self-righteous, self-satisfaction on the defender social order's face.

So I was totally surprised when a similar situation happened again. This time, it was by a solitary granoloid who happened to be standing right in the frickin' doorway. I had to actually gently move her aside so I could enter the coffee shop. Again, nobody at the counter, just the cute girl who has a smile perfect for starting the day with. I ordered my extra-large medium and proceeded to make my way outside.

The door-stop with the hemp sweater then gave me hell for cutting in front of her. She was barely even in the place to even be in a line. So I just didn't register her existence (I hadn't had my first cup of coffee after all) and walked out.

Apparently I'm a rude boy. Maybe the days of having women tell me I'm "too nice" is over? Doubt it.

Seriously, I consider people who are generally inconsiderate to be, well, inconsiderate. Butting in line is rude, yes, but those who hold up others because they don't know what they want but showed first. Certainly a grey area, but I have no patience for those who think showing up is all they need to do. And they giving flak to those who show up, do what they need to do and move on?

Bark away, folks, I'm too busy getting things done. And sometimes I need coffee to do it.

Back Online

2008-02-22T17:05:00.002-07:00

Third time I've moved in two years, third time my able internet provider screwed up the damn transfer. Three days, no toobs. And of course I have all this stuff I have to do which is so much easier online.

I mean, why leave the house?

And to think I worked for them for eight years. I'm gone eight months and it all goes to pot. Oh wait, it was already there.

Speaking of which, well, I ain't gonna tell ya but I may have good news. I may also have no news since it's that kind of event but I'm all nothing kinda guy and since I can't have it all....

That's about it really. I'm alive, getting some rest, back at the gym, putting off cleaning, geeking out with my minions tomorrow (board games as a "team building exercise") and generally settling into the new digs.

And if the smell of cow shit is an indication, Spring is here!

Settling In, Settling Down

2008-02-18T16:54:00.003-07:00

The move be almost finished. The only things left at the old place are my propane tank and the cleaning supplies. I hope I also left the AC adapter to my speakers and my mic headset as those are not where I thought I put them. I think the box may have opened and either they fell out (and the movers put them in the trash or something) or they were just taken as a "bonus".

The only other casualty was my laundry hamper. Those are cheap and plentiful.

So I'm quite happy with the move. It was quiet on a long-weekend Saturday night so that's the ultimate test passed. The living room is smaller but the trade off is the double-size storage area, a kitchen you can turn around in without hitting something and a view of the city instead of the parking garage. All for $185 a month less. Oh yeah and the gym with the bikini models. Some things you can't put a price on.

Moves are always times when you reassess your stuff. My stuff is, like their owner, getting old, banged up and dilapidatd (the gym will help the owner in that regard). I'm tempted to replace the whole shebang but that can get a tad expensive and I have a new computer to buy in the next couple of months (no, not a Mac Capa). Spore has an official date, I keep hearing rave reviews about Sins of a Solar Empire and, well not much else at the moment but that's at least something.

There may be other changes afoot but I don't want to jinx it. Let's just say there may be a second of the "life changing events" coming up.

And no, a new woman in my life is the third one. But then again, I could go hit the treadmill....

Get Me Gone

2008-02-13T17:38:00.002-07:00

Well tomorrow is my final day of packing, then I'm outta here! And into a slight variation of "here" costing me about a paycheck but gaining me a good night's sleep so it seems fair all in all.

I'm actually surprised at the dearth (look it up) of crap I have this time around. Oh sure, there's three cubic meteres of Lego, the ten boxes of books and the surpisingly high number of towels I seem to have but they all have their uses and frankly I can't part with any of them. Well, maybe the towels that don't have edges and the odd bleach stain.

As payment for letting him use my vehicle for nefarious purposes (I hope he obscured the license plate) L'il Bro G helped memove in some of the stuff like plants and CDs into the place and commented he liked it better than my current place even though it's bigger. The current place not the new one. I tend to agree and not just because of the reduced noise factor. I tend to get a good "vibe" (or bad one) from an apartment and it's served me in good stead in the past. But because I'm me I tend to distrust those little intuitions and end up making bad decisions. This also extends to things like CD purchases, cars, jobs and girlfriends So I guess the point I'm trying to get at is that I'm going to trust my instincts a bit more.

For example I need to do some work tonight for an appointment I have tomorrow but I am disinclined to do so as I am still stoned from the over-consumption of back-pain medicine taken for my broken (yes I broke it) rib. But my instincts tell me that shrugging this off is a bad idea. Failure to do so will cause me short-term embarrassment and long-term "you fucked up your life"-edness.

But that could also be the drugs talking so who the hell knows?

That Movin' Groove

2008-02-09T11:02:00.001-07:00

Sorry for the lack of update, this one has been busy.

Last weekend, I went skiing with the Social Club at work. Well I say work, but there were about a dozen folks who actually work there who went along about 15 of their friends each. Since these were younger folks, I'd say I was the oldest one there, by about 15 years.

The bus ride up Friday was a drink-fest and I manged to keep up with the young 'uns by downing most of a twenty-six of Stoli. However my "maturity" was evident when they all got up at 7 AM to hit the slopes and I felt like the slope hit me. This would be a theme for the weekend.

It was my first time out this season and frankly my first day was a good imitation of "Bambi": unsteady, moving slow and slipping alot. But fun was had although I did most of the day solo. That's one of things I like about skiing. You can have fun while swooshing on your own. By the end of the day my legs were cramped, which attribute to the hangover more than anything. I think the running from the last few months helped the ol' musculature because the next morning I was in any pain at all.

That night I braked the imbibing a bit. I did get to know my chalet-mates a bit better (pics on my Facebook page) and there's was general merriment. The effect was spoiled by three of the guys I was roomed up with: the Russian Mafia. Never had I been in such close proximity of boys who's egos outstripped their obvious immaturity by so much. I think it goes a long way to explaining why there is such a large amount of womentrying to find husbands outside the former Soviet.

Sunday skiing was better. I was actually able to keep my knees together on occassion and did some one-diamond black runs (no moguls, thank the gods). just before lunch though I had a bit of a fall. Somehow, I turned my velocity into a rotational velocity with my feet as the pivot point. I went down hard on my right size. Fortunatly the ski pole was between me and the patch of ice I hit. I'd say I had bent the pole about, oh, sixty degrees and got a nice impression of my rib cage on it. While I don't think I cracked a rib I still can't sleep on that side. I had forgotten what getting the wind knocked out of you feels like.

I called it a day after that and took pictures.

Today I'm packing up. In one week I go to my smaller and cheaper place. I picked up the keys last week and sort of planned out where I'm going to put stuff. It's going to be a tad crowdd but the storage room is about twice the size I have now so That will help out greatly. The best thing is I went over at about ten PM one night just to listen to what kind of noise I can expect.

Silent as the grave!

The next few days are packing and some preliminary moving. I've engaged movers for next Saturday but since they get paid by the hour I'm moving stuff in a bit at a time. With any luck (and Thursday off) I can get all the boxes over there. It's a faint hope as lifting things right now after my little spill is a tad painful, but I should get the lighter stuff over. I'll save the books for the paid help. The only worry is that when i call to confirm they will have "lost" the reservation as it is actually a long weekend next week.

Okay spell checker is shot, pardon the plethora of typos and poor grammar.

Happy 50!

2008-01-28T18:06:00.000-07:00

I can't let the day go by without mentioning it's the 50th anniversary of your favorite toy and mine, Lego! Even Google did a tribute with a Lego-themed logo.

Gotta love the brick! Although it's tough moving when you have about two cubic meters of the stuff....

(Un)Predictable

2008-01-27T11:45:00.000-07:00

Lessee, what to kvetch about today? Well how about these guys?

If you look at this the day of the posting you can see that a very cold front is moving in today (Sunday). Yesterday, they said it was coming in Monday, on Thursday they said it was coming in Tuesday. And each day they "expanded" how long it's going to stick around by a day.

Now I know weather is a real chaotic system. It's hard to predict exactly what's going to happen with a real degree of accuracy. But the pattern described above is pretty consistent with these guys. Cold fronts move in faster and stay longer than these guys say almost every time. There's a part of me that wonders if it's actually an attempt to grab ratings. People don't like bad news and of course shy away when they don't like what they hear. For me, I'd rather get the "unspun" forecast if this is the case. I'm already in the habit of plugging the car in two days before the predict deep-freeze because of this.

Anyway, everyone complains about the weather around here, so in this case I'm just a single voice in the crowd, muffled by a scarf. I just hope the chill lets up a bit by next weekend: skiing in -30 in not my idea of fun. However there are hottubs and apparently a 2:1 female to male ratio going on this trip.

Every cloud has a silver lining?

Withdrawl

2008-01-21T18:04:00.000-07:00

It's odd, but lately I've had the urge to renew my World of Warcraft subscription.

It's odd because at first, it was a huge hit with me. Sometime around level thirty I realized a couple of things:

I had being doing basically the same thing over and over again
The only way to customize my character was to get "uber-lewtz"
90% of the people I was playing with online were ass-hats

I'm still of course playing games, but since my nVidia card went to Silicon Heaven, it's been on my DS (Puzzle Quest) and my laptop (Sword of the Stars). But something is missing. I'm not 100% sure what: it may be the adrenaline rush of FPS combat, the rich and fantastic worlds offered online or the god-like power of an RTS.

That or I'm bored. Or I'm getting old.

With the writer's strike there's never anything all that good on TV (or at least the channels I can afford). So the cable is getting disconnected. With the fried board, I haven't been gaming nearly as much. I have been going to the gym on a pretty regular schedule, and am a quarter of a mile away from running five-k a session, despite the pack-a-day habit.

Dear gods, I can't actually be growing up can I?

Nah. Why else would I have all that Lego?

Embarrassment in my Pants

2008-01-14T20:16:00.001-07:00

While I was doing laundry tonight I noticed something about my comfortable jeans.

Almost everyone has at least a pair of these. You know, the jeans that have frayed cuffs, worn knees, paint stains, bleach marks and in my case a huge hole in the back pocket where my cheap wallet has worn through. They're comfortable, lived in, good and trusted friends.

So while sorting through the washing I noticed something pretty dreadful. At some point I had worn a hole in the inseam just below the crotch. Naturally my first reaction was something on the lines of yeah baby! But it quickly dawned on me that the said worn-patch in the fabric was not from anything I could be proud of.

In fact...it was caused by my thighs rubbing together when I walked. This is embarrassing enough. But when the cute girl folding her laundry beside me saw this and realized the cause at the same moment as I did and she giggled I was mortified.

I gotta go check all my pants and learn how to sew re-enforcements in my remaining pants. And go run about 25k at the gym. And get diet pills. And then move to a remote cabin in the wilderness.

Gah...

The Theory

2008-01-11T16:56:00.000-07:00

L'l Bro B may have hit upon why my next door neighbor has rage management issues: 'Roid Rage.

It makes perfect sense. Explosive outbursts manifested in violent action, seething rage and (possibly) domestic violence. When B mentioned the possibility, it "clicked".

I never understood the whole 'roid thing. That is I understand why guys want to get big 'n' strong but the stupid lengths they go to. Mind you that goes for plastic surgery, bulimia, excessive wardrobe dysfunction etc. Vanity, pure and simple.

Besides the mantra of "leaving a pretty corpse" doesn't make much sense if along the way you ensure nobody attends the funeral.

Post-It

2008-01-09T21:59:00.000-07:00

Well it's already the ninth and I've only posted one entry this year so here's one just for filler. I did manage to get the new place. I shouldn't worry about these things - I have good credit, good references and a steady job - but I always get a tinge of anxiety when I apply for stuff like this. Maybe it's a fear of rejection but I like to think it's my past experiences with paper work.

For example a while back our HR department informed me that I had been paying Alberta Health Care at the family rate instead of the single rate so there we going to give me back the difference. Last week I was informed from the same HR department that they received notice that from AHC that I had not paid for AHC since my departure from my previous job, so I owed them money. I'm now arguing with HR that while I did owe two months' worth the payments for the past six have have been deducted from my pay and obviously not forwarded to said government agency.

This is not the first time this has happened.

Back in university, part of tuition was supposedly going to the government to cover these health premiums. So I was surprised when I received a notice that I owed five years in back premiums. Over the course of six months I attempted to get the University to show it's payment records (which they said they had) to the AHC. They both said it's not their respective problem, it's yours so pay up now. Due to the fact I was a student all those years and had little to no income I did manage to reduce the amount owed to about $2500 which I had to eventually pay. Needless to say anyone from my alma matter who asks me to donate as an alumnus get the cold shoulder.

I'm moving in the middle of next month and due to having five weeks notice actually managed to get movers on a Saturday. This will cost me somewhere around $400 but I'll consider it money well spent. Although I do appreciate their help, my friends tend to get severely injured when helping me move. I consider it taking one for the team.

And I was sick today. I woke up with a slightly sore throat but by the time I did the ritual 3S (shower, shit, shave) routine it felt like someone was ramming low-grade sandpaper down my esophagus with splinter-handled plunger. I was going to email a notice to my boss that I was sick, but when I opened my web mail, I notice several panicked messages regarding that project I keep whinging about. So I went to work, determined that the problems were: 1) I had made an assumption that someone had done some due diligence and 2) apparently I didn't yell loudly enough that having someone fiddle with databases who thinks it works just like "Microsoft Money" is a bad idea. So after breathing heavily on several people I went home and slept. It was surprisingly quiet after all my whining about the noise and it may me reconsider the possibility that I'm just being too sensitive.

The idiot next door who is repeatedly slamming his closet door open and shut puts that to rest at least.

On the Road Again

2008-01-06T15:11:00.001-07:00

As promised (threatened, whatever) I'm moving again. I put an application on a new apartment at noon today: seventh floor, concrete building.

So in addition some peace ad/or quiet, I'm actually going to be saving a good chunk of change:

Rent, including parking, is going from $1250 to $1175. Plus I'll get secured underground parking instead of the open lot with no lights I have now.
Power and cable is included, so that's another $90 a month in bills gone.
The new place has a pretty decent gym, so I can drop my $50 a month membership at the one I go to now.

So lessee, that's $215 a month less than the place I'm in now, or $2580 a year. Plus it's quiet (or it least it can't be worse than where I am now. Plus the new place a has a huge balcony.

Unlike last time, I really only looked at the one place. Now normally that sounds stupid, but it was a place that was in competition with the current dive. it lost only because the layout was a bit odd and a tad smaller than where I am now. However right now I have quite a bit of space that's going to waste (my TV stand is about 6 feet from the wall). The storage is better at the new place as well: there is some.

It sounds like I'm trying to convince myself that this is a good idea doesn't it? Trust me, it is. Did I tell you about my neighbor across the hall's new baby? The one with colic?

This time around I'm hiring movers. granted I'm paying two rents for February but I'll get that back with the projected savings. However I'm sure the folks who helped me move last time would be more than willing to do the beer and food thing afterwards even if they don't do any back-straining, leg-breaking work.

I haven't had a decent night's sleep in five months. It's kind of scary really. I go to bed at night actually tensing in anticipation of the nocturnal cacophony that has categorized my tenancy here. That is not conducive to a restful slumber. See? I'm so excited I'm bringing out the $2 words! All I need to do now is just survive the next six weeks or so. A ski trip and a blind date over the next while may or may not help that. At least there's the potential that I'll actually be sleeping somewhere else with those.

And yes the gym has been busy since New year's but not as bad as I thought. Maybe people just gave up on trying? However there is new eye candy, which I would miss except that the new place houses swimsuit models who work out there. Okay, why did I not move there in the first place again? Sheesh...

Nooo Yar!

2007-12-31T17:16:00.001-07:00

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

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

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

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

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

Thanks Grandma!

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

Sock it to Me!

2007-12-27T19:55:00.000-07:00

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

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

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

Love it!

Gonna Party Like it's 1999

2007-12-23T21:36:00.001-07:00

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Well, two outta three anyways.

... Before the Storm

2007-12-20T18:07:00.000-07:00

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

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

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

Strange Calm

2007-12-19T17:40:00.000-07:00

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

Morale has improved remarkably.

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

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

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