Transcript - Sometime between Sunday and Monday

Please read from the bottom up. That's the way the Community IM is set up! :)

# Glass : g'night Mr. Good.
# Dale Mugford : bye captain
# renatan : have a good night Matt
# Dave Mugford : ;) anyhow take care man!
# Dave Mugford : *though
# Dave Mugford : yes best to you too! i think we are suppose to walk our dogs tough?
# Matthew Good : anyway muggy number 2, I have to carry my now lame dog outside. Have sun in the Sahara. Best to your mom.
# Dave Mugford : wow was wondering if you would give me a ham of a joke
# Matthew Good : see, therein lies the distinction "human" rights.
# Dave Mugford : ummm i don't like your reality matt so i substitute my own in it's place.
# Dave Mugford : you lambasted me, harshly no doubt, odd for a human rights guy...
# Matthew Good : I didn't realize that they were referring to Mississauga as a desert now.
# Dave Mugford : hence i am lost, you follow me here what did you think was going to happen?
# Dave Mugford : no shit, i am in the desert man
# Dave Mugford : besides being in the desert truly is not all it has cracked up to be... I realize that now, but tell it to the next gentlement i see on a camel i will, i will hitch my first ride outta here
# Matthew Good : You have totally lost me
# Dave Mugford : and here you are rallying with me, but i've got the "smackdown"
# Dave Mugford : lamenting man, i am just letting it all go
# Matthew Good : Plus, you're in the desert. No one can see you.
# Matthew Good : It's okay to be less than good looking Dave. Seriously man, you just have to let all that hatred go.
# Dave Mugford : you masquerade as an angel, but your horns give you away man
# Matthew Good : But let's face facts. Your brother is just a better looking man. I'm sorry, but there it is.
# Matthew Good : It's not my fault man. I feel for you.
# Matthew Good : Now, now, David. Just because you're not her favourite, don't take it out on me.
# Dale Mugford : for sure. i had to make a facebook group for it.
# Dave Mugford : hey matt wipe your smerk off your face and put down that cigarate and drink... go to bed wake up and take those horns off...
# Dave Mugford : but now he confirmed it
# Dave Mugford : yeah shit i thought all this "i hear matt is an asshole talk" was just poking fun.
# Dale Mugford : they have that arms race everyday on Digg.
# Glass : It's the mac's man. They're like nukes. They get one, and then they think they can walk over anyone. Until they meet another mac user and then it's like a Mactacular arms race.
# Dale Mugford : And you thought you had a hard day before, eh dave?
# Matthew Good : It was you Fredo, I know it was you
# Matthew Good : actually her exact words were "I only have one son"
# Dave Mugford : damnit my own brother is bouncing that tune off my head
# Dave Mugford : see now that's plain rude man, i mean i meet you digitally for the first time and you pull the hes her favourite shit, ouch,
# Matthew Good : No, well, she told me that too Dale.
# Dale Mugford : Dave, you've always known that.
# munchkin : hi
# munchkin : hi
# Dale Mugford : Hello munchkin.
# Matthew Good : By the way, did I mention to you that Dale's her favourite?
# Dave Mugford : lets be cool about this.
# Dave Mugford : why do you have to do that, i hung up with my bro, she does not need to know about any of this, and she thinks i am at home, if you tell her i am in the middle of a desert with a macbook i think she might freak out man
# Matthew Good : I can't move the menu bar, and can't spell. But I'll tell you one thing...I'm calling your mom right now.
# Glass : Haha.
# Dave Mugford : it is my shaking hands
# Dave Mugford : shit hot sun, hot water, now matt's sad, and i screw up with grammar fuck
# Dave Mugford : i here i am in hot water now
# Dave Mugford : *love*
# Dave Mugford : able to the menu? read it over before you send it man
# Matthew Good : you're the one complaining about not being able to the menu, you're in the sahara, and on the phone with Dale who is giving you special powers to move it - I'm just saying...you\'re going to hell.
# Dave Mugford : ;)
# Dave Mugford : an angel amongst us all hail :p
# Matthew Good : well, I can't move the menu, and I designed the site. Yet I still call my mother.
# Dave Mugford : shit make it public thanks
# Matthew Good : so you canm call your brother from the sahara but you CAN'T call your ailing mother? You are so going to hell dude.
# Dale Mugford : the CIM: where shit flies fast.
# renatan : yeah that pause was welcomed
# Glass : Sorry. I'm still trying to catch my breath. Was laughing too hard.
# Dale Mugford : bump
# Dave Mugford : they have fed-ex out here, that shit is everywhere
# Matthew Good : hahahahahahahaha hahaaaa
# Matthew Good : hahahahahahahaha hahahaha
# Dave Mugford : (ps I can send you bifocals matt)
# Dave Mugford : call my mom? i'm in the sahara i don't have a phone, if i did, I would call her and tell her the menu is bullshit
# Matthew Good : no one can move the menu, that's the way we designed it
# Dave Mugford : im just as well sitting in sand i can't move a menu, what the hell can i do?
# Glass : Haha. Uh oh. Somebody's goin' to throw down.
# Matthew Good : tell him to hang up and call his mother
# Matthew Good : tell him to pound sand
# Dave Mugford : i don't like your menu power monger bullshit
# Dave Mugford : crap
# Dave Mugford : that is cra
# Dave Mugford : My menu won't move matt
# renatan : because it's entertaining us!
# renatan : hahaha
# Dale Mugford : good question
# Dave Mugford : this is bullshit
# Matthew Good : Why are we typing on this thing when I am currently watching you talk to your brother via video chat?
# Dale Mugford : yes...
# Matthew Good : can I ask you something?
# Dale Mugford : yeah
# Matthew Good : Dale?
# Dale Mugford : can't move the menu block, he said it's all bullshit.
# Matthew Good : so you';re the smart one then
# Dale Mugford : that's what set him off
# Glass : hahaha.
# Matthew Good : jesus
# Dale Mugford : he did
# Matthew Good : tell him to watch the fucking video man
# Dale Mugford : what do i tell him?
# Dale Mugford : he said he's a community guy, needs the community up there
# Matthew Good : hahahahahahahaha
# Dale Mugford : hahaha
# Dale Mugford : my brother's complaining he can't move the menu sidebar block...
# Glass : How much you want for it?
# Glass : Well, that just leaves one question...
# Matthew Good : or trade it in and get that much towards a new one
# Matthew Good : Ya, I could sell my Mac Book Pro right now for a few grand easy
# Dale Mugford : yeah
# Dale Mugford : 80-90%
# Matthew Good : less 15% maybe?
# Matthew Good : plus the resale value is like what dale?
# Glass : Haha. True enough I guess.
# Dale Mugford : haha
# Matthew Good : Some things in life have to come before food and gas
# Glass : Whichever one cheap corporations can get mailed en masse for as cheap as possible.
# Glass : Yeah. Where am I going to get all the money for that? I can barely afford food and gas.
# Matthew Good : which version of OSX though, Tiger?
# Dale Mugford : mmmmm Mac Pro double plus good.
# Matthew Good : four hard drives - 500 gigs each
# Glass : Haha. I'm hoping you were joking. Because I'm not. We got all our computers upgraded to OSX, but the company didn't bother to update the software (which doesn't run in OSX). So, in comes the computer tech with his magical solution: Emulation.
# Matthew Good : ramp it the max - 16 gigs
# Matthew Good : Time to get one of the new Intel Mac Towers
# Dale Mugford : ;)
# renatan : Eww
# Matthew Good : I just threw up in my mouth
# Matthew Good : that's scary as fuck
# Glass : Well, in my trade, we're still straddling the no-mans land between OS 9 and OSX. Emulators ahoy.
# Dale Mugford : had it for awhile with tiger
# Glass : Invert colours. Haha. Oh, they're going to hate me at the office tomorrow.
# Matthew Good : they have a function for everything my friend
# Glass : They have a function for that now?
# Glass : Jesus.
# Matthew Good : plus you have to put up with all that lame pixelated text - eeww
# Dale Mugford : On a Mac, choose Command+Option+C ontrol+8 to invert the screen colours : )
# Matthew Good : See, this is why PC's are a pain in the ass. When you dim the brightness on a mac is really alters the look. the other factor is that this is a massively content driven site. That would be like asking the New York Times site to have a dark version. They would never do it because when you read large bodies of text it's horrible for absorbing information as well as hell on your eyes
# renatan : they do
# Glass : Oh, they have it.
# Matthew Good : or don't Dell's have that
# Matthew Good : then you turn your screen brightness down
# Glass : Anyway, the reason I bring up the topic of user-chosen colour schemes - I hate looking at a white background in the middle of the night after driving home in the dark. Unless the website has an automatic feature to rollover to a night theme after a certain time, I like having the option of having a darker background with lighter text.
# Matthew Good : when it comes to amazing, yugop. com is considered by most to be the most cutting edge, but then again, I think flash is a dead issue, so
# Matthew Good : he's a developer, he developed Mint
# renatan : why is that you think ?
# Matthew Good : you should have seen his last site, it was amazing
# Glass : It's kind of like interior design.
# Matthew Good : in fact, there are a lot of sites out there that used to be very well designed but have turned into total crap
# Glass : Why would you do that, Matt? I just googled that site, and it damn near blinded me.
# Glass : Oh god.
# Matthew Good : and he's a fucking guru
# Matthew Good : but I mean, come one, even Shaun Inman's site looks horrible
# Matthew Good : I tried thata while back too, with Dave Kellam
# Dale Mugford : hahaha
# Matthew Good : but Muggy would kill me
# Matthew Good : colours
# Matthew Good : personally, I would nothing more to do a site that is just plain white text with default html
# Matthew Good : if I wanted to design it like this, then I never could understand having three other link colour options to choose from
# renatan : hahaha
# Matthew Good : no, I hate theme switching, it's gay
# Glass : Speaking of schemes though, have you ever considered user-defined schemes? Something like, you pre-design six or seven schemes and then let the use choose which they want?
# Dale Mugford : search the wbe for an updated one
# Dale Mugford : Chances are it's your color profile settings...
# Glass : Like I said. I'll look at it on my work comp tomorrow. Odds are it's just this comp.
# Matthew Good : Weird, I don't see how that could be seen as brown
# Glass : *pages being newspaper archives.
# Glass : Yeah. Looks the same pic vs. page. Maybe it's because I've been looking at old crusty pages through a camera lens all day long.
# Matthew Good : this is how it should look «link»
# renatan : the orange on the painting is brighter than the writing of the links
# Glass : Well, even so. The fact that I'm thinking it's brown means there probably something wrong. Likely on my end.
# renatan : well it's not bright orange though, it's toned down isn't it ?
# Glass : I'll try looking at it again on my work computer tomorrow. The one at work is calibrated to process digital photos, so if it looks brown there too, I know I'll need to get my eyes checked.
# Matthew Good : just sec
# Matthew Good : hmm
# Glass : It's, for the most part, still running factory default.
# Glass : I'm... not entirely sure.
# Matthew Good : is your display set to the highest rendering rate?
# Glass : I'm running firefox on a Dell, powered by a malnourished hamster.
# Matthew Good : and what are your monitor settings set at
# Matthew Good : what kind of browser/machine are you running
# renatan : I have to agree, those colour choice is smart
# Matthew Good : it's orange
# Matthew Good : in this context, blue would not have worked with the header nor the other thematic elements
# Glass : Or maybe I'm just colourblind.
# Glass : Orange? Okay... hold the phone for a second. On my monitor, it's coming out as a near-brown almost.
# Matthew Good : From a design standpoint, black, gray, and orange operate in the same combination field
# renatan : ok thanks
# Glass : Yeah. It's not people. It's just me.
# renatan : I am sorry it'a totally out of context
# Matthew Good : ya, go right ahead
# renatan : Matt, Is there a way I can use some of the pictures you have on your Flickr to do paintings with ??
# Matthew Good : yes
# Glass : Oh, as in the colour scheme?
# Matthew Good : I popped by because Dale was saying people had problems with the new link colour
# Matthew Good : others, like the one on the header, was done by someone in a set, and we just grabbed it. Open source rules
# renatan : oh Matt I had a question for you
# renatan : but that's really interesting
# renatan : I am no great web designer, I don't knwo anything about those things unfortunately
# Matthew Good : most of the small ones, like the one above, are used all over the place and are from famfamfam .com
# renatan : I see
# Matthew Good : so they float
# Glass : Well, I do most of my own clickables, but is usually uses a lot of my own photos and a copious amount of photoshopping.
# Matthew Good : Most of the buttons are from pro sites and then transfered into pixadex and then png'ed out
# renatan : that's my hand too
# renatan : yeah I don't like steeling icons on the internet ;)
# Glass : Cool. I was just thinking that, but I guess you had the same thought two years ago.
# renatan : yeah
# Glass : Hrmm. This is just a random though, but do you paint or pastel the images you use for buttons?
# renatan : yeah, paper, that'S what my life is all about
# renatan : it's already 2 years old
# Matthew Good : oh the whole thing is a piece of paper
# renatan : it needs an update I want it more exciting and professionnal
# renatan : www.melissabreau lt.ca
# Matthew Good : what is your url
# Matthew Good : they actually recently changed it, now it's a wood header and some pattern «link»
# renatan : I swear I did it first, people stole the idea from me, like in your song, people stole the side bar idea from you
# renatan : well, that's what's on mine anyway
# renatan : oh
# Matthew Good : the paper sidebar effect
# renatan : which effect are we talking about ?
# Glass : Unhh. I was wondering why the IM just lagged out.
# Matthew Good : actually, there are a lot of blogs that have used that effect
# renatan : Hi Matt!
# renatan : hehe
# renatan : yeah I wante dto do that for years but when I start a painting, I forget to stop and take pictures in the process!
# Matthew Good : last.fm has already beat you too that
# Glass : As well, I notice you don't have a section for works in progress. Not that you need one, but I love seeing a kind of step-by-step evolution of an artist's work.
# renatan : I want to put another piece or torn paper on the side and create a kind of side bar on the right that would always be there, wherever you go on the website
# renatan : yeah thats really great idea
# Glass : As well, if you have friends who are artists and have their own websites, you could have something like a "pals" section... or something.

xkcd - Thoughts

For some reason, I am happy this has never happened to me...

Bleary-eyed and stuff

So another weekend has come and gone (almost).

Thursday, I thought I would be able to finish some stuff at work. But, nooooooo! There had to be some hiccups along the way. I suppose that this is what happens when you go away for 3 weeks. Not wanting to sound cocky or anything, but sometimes the guys just don't think about some things and the consequnces if some things are not done. Basically, I get to find out what the problems are and look into how to get them fix. And what does this result in? This results in my not being able to finish on Friday what I was suppose to do all week. What cheeses me off sometimes is when someone is working on one thing then has to go away, there's no handoff of the activity that he was working on. It gets stuck in limbo. No one has a clue as to what state things are in. And sometimes, the guy is not easily reachable. This sort of thing just makes my job that much more frustrating. I'm trying my best to be responsible and make sure things are done as properly as possible. I made sure that when I was gone that the guys knew how to handle certain requests. Anyway.. enough ranting.

This weekend has not been bad. Yesterday, I went to the Pig Roast hash. The run was out in St-Lazare. I made sure I had bug-repellant. I also packed with me a swimsuit and an extra pair of footwear. I didn't use the swimsuit, but the footwear came in quite handy! Part of the run took us through the woods and some rather muddy trails. Yuck! At some point, you just could not avoid it any more and had no choice but to just slog through it. Ugh! :p

Before heading over to the hash, I had gone over to Finnegan's market to hang out and spend some time with a few people. Many of the same vendors were still there. The lady who sold these ethiopian-vegetarian items was there. It was a really nice sunny day, so it was nice to walk around there a bit. I did end up buying a few items from that lady. Yummy! I also came away with two tomato plants courtesy of C. I gave her some issues of Canadian Gardening I was done with.

Today was a bit more lazy. Slept in a little. Got up and shopped for groceries. Found some trouble at MEC. Came home and had some lunch. Planted up the tomato plants and cleaned up the deck a bit. I think I need some new outdoor chairs. Worked on my online course a little bit. Perused the net some more. Made an online purchase. So uhm.. that's pretty much it. Not terribly exciting, is it?

Waxing nostalgia

Sometimes I think about places I've been. Sometimes I think about returning to some places. However, it seems that some places may be best not revisited for some time until the right moment.

Why am I mentioning this? Well, I was perusing some photos on someone's Flickr page. They had some shots from Hawaii. It reminded of how wonderful the place is. It also reminded me how much nicer it is to visit such a place with another person. Anyway, I think you get the picture.

For sure, one day, I would like to visit some place like Hawaii again. But I don't see that happening any time soon.

Just a passing thought...

Mid-week pulse check

Not sure what it is, but maybe it's just a combination of things. I feel a bit worn down.

Maybe it's the jetlag but that's slowly improving as I manage to stay up until at least 10PM before my head hits the pillow. Or, maybe it was the gardening I did on Sunday. I had to make a few trips up the back stairs bringing up plants and a bag of potting soil. On top of that, there was quite a bit of kneeling and crouching when I potted up the plants. Of course, having a cat sit on your stomach does not help either. Sad to say, but I sit in a slightly slouched position that allows this to happen.

Well, the week is half over. However, I feel that I still have about a week's worth of work left to do over the next two days. It gets busy at work in waves. The wave is cresting about now.

Tomorrow night my brother comes up for the Formula 1 weekend. I might take a short nap earlier in the evening since he'll be getting in late. Might try to have dinner with him and his friend Friday evening. Saturday is the annual Pig Roast Hash. I am going to try to go to that.

Anyway, I am pooped..

Back to reality

Well, I was back at work today after 3 weeks of vacation. Nothing has changed.

The day started off with me realizing that I may not be able to remember my password to login to Windows on my work laptop. I had not thought about it until this morning just as I was leaving home. Of course, when I got to work, I tried at least 3-4 passwords before I was locked out. I had to call the IT Helpdesk to fix this little problem.

Once I managed to login, I checked email. I knew it was not going to be a pretty sight, so I went to get a coffee. I think I had something like over 400 emails to sift through, and that was after Outlook had already moved a few things according to some already-defined rules. Yay. So it took me most of the morning to sift through what was left. There were a few emails for some requests, but I will assume that they were taken care of.

By lunchtime, some software I was waiting to be released for testing was released. So I downloaded it and prepared to have it loaded on the test node. Luckily I hadn't encountered any mjor problems. The only thing I noticed that was different about this software was that there was an extra script that was part of the package. Hmm..

Anyway, I started the implementation of the software. I didn't come across any major hiccups with it, but I will still need to check the logfiles tomorrow to ensure everything was hunky-dory. In all, this thing took all afternoon for it to complete implementation. Yuck. Well, a friend did stop by my office and we talked about my trip and stuff. So in the end, I ended up leaving work after 7PM. Oh well.

Yesterday, I was pretty ambitious and seeing that the weather was going to hold (it was originally forecast that it would rain), I decided to head over to the local nursery to get some stuff for my little patio garden. I drove over and arrived there just as they opened. There were already some people there. I knew I wanted to get some geraniums (inspired by my trip to Italy), but what shade of red did I want? I decided to get the hot pink geraniums. It's not terribly garrish, but I did not want to get the traditional red ones either. I got some purplely-green grassy stuff to plant with the geraniums. I also picked out some ivy-type stuff. Since I really liked the violas, I got some violas and blue lobelias to plant together. As well, I got a whack load of herbs (rosemary, basil, thyme, sage) to pot up together.

After I got home with my haul, I took a breather before gathering enough courage to go ahead and do up the planters. The planters still had the remains of last years plantings. So they all had to get cleaned out. I had also bought a bag of potting mix. It turned out that I only needed to top-off a few of the planters and fill a few of the pots. I still have some leftover for when I get the tomato plants later.

So that has been my life post-Italy.

Back to our regularly scheduled programming

Well, I am back home again after nearly 3 weeks in Italy. Was it good? Yes. Would I go back to Italy? Very likely. What would I miss? The food!

So, what have I done since I got back? Not a helluva whole lot really. I tried to sleep in a bit, but got up early enough to hit the supermarket for some things before the usual Saturday shoppers showed up. Laundered my stuff from the trip. Read the Saturday paper at some point. Tried to get caught up with my Net browsing and emails. I still haven't checked my other gmail account and am afraid to.

Tomorrow I think I will head over to the nearby nursery to look for some plants for the deck. I'm not entirely sure if I want to or need to replace some of the planters, but the ones I currently have are starting to get a bit weather-worn. I'll see when I get to the nursery. They open at 9, so I'll probably head over there early.

Aside from that, nothing major really. It's been a rather quite day that seemed to pass by slowly...

Another day of rest before I go back to work... :p

Happy Mother's Day

Today is Mother's Day. I did my duty as a daughter and sent my mother a card. As well, I called her today to wish her happy Mother's Day.

Sometimes I feel a little bit disconnected from most people around me in that I live so far from my folks. Today, for example, I went to the supermarket to pick up a few things. They had on display a huge selection of floral bouquets for people to pick up on their way to visit Mom and/or Grandma. And there I am picking up a bag of kitty litter and some toiletries.

Elsewhere, it seems that on a weekend that should be filled with family gatherings and happiness, there are those who have to deal with recent personal tragedies and bad news. I guess you just don't realize it sometimes that while one is celebrating, there are others mourning. I suppose that is the way life goes. You can't be happy and sad at the same time. Or could you?

Meanwhile, I am trying to finish getting my stuff together for my trip. I still don't know what to expect when I get there until I get there. Usually, I overplan to the point that I know where I need to go to get somewhere or do something. This would especially be the case for some place new that I am going to. I've never been to Rome. I will be heading into the unknown!


P.S.
I will be lighting a candle for all those going through a rough patch. I wish I could do more. Plus, I've always been terrible at expressing my feelings on such occasions. Sometimes I wish I could say more than the usual, but I can't. I just plain suck at it. :(

It's that time of year again..

It's time to take a vacation!

As previously mentioned in an earlier entry, I am bound for Italy. So while I am there, I will try to update the trip blog with any interesting tidbits and adventures. I won't be lugging around my iBook, so entries will probably be sporadic. Any pics taken will probably be available only after I return.

So for those who think they can live vicariously through me, I hope you will enjoy the ride! :)

Pizza Toss

Ok.. this happened a while ago, but just the commentary is worth it!

Sucks getting old!

Okay, quick catch up time...

Jum is doing fine since she had her teeth cleaned. She'll be on canned for a little while yet. She doesn't seem to mind. BS on the other hand is Mr. Hoover in cleaning up the bits that Jum leaves behind. BS is just absolutely besides himself waiting to be let into the room for his cleanup duty. Silly cat.

The weekend was alright. Nothing too terribly exciting. I took it easy on saturday but I did get a pair of pants altered (shortened them a little) and did a little bit of shopping at the mall. Well, I did come away with a PSP game and a pair of trainers. I know. Did I *really* need them? Maybe, maybe not. I did it anyway.

Sunday, I did the Hash thing. The sun was out and the weather seemed mild, so I might as well go out and get some fresh air. It wasn't bad. I got to see some of the other hashers as well. It was all good.

Yesterday I decided that I would start taking my bike to work. It was sunny but a little bit chilly in the morning, but overall, not a bad ride. The ride home, however, was another story. I encountered a bit of a headwind, so that made for a tougher ride. My legs were a bit sore and tired.

Today, I rode to work again. Going wasn't so bad. My muscles were still a little sore from yesterday. I think it took me close to 20 minutes to ride to work. Boy! I must be out of shape! On the ride home, more headwind. By the time I got home this evening, my legs were pretty tired and my lower back was a little sore. Oy! Either I am really out of shape, or I'm just getting old! :-p Either way, it sucks!

Tomorrow, depending on how the ol' body feels in the morning, I'll decide if I want to ride in again or not. If not, maybe I'll head off to Dieu du Ciel with the other guys after work. :)

Anyhow, aside from the rather mundane day-to-day stuff, not a heck of a whole lot that's exciting has been happening. I'm just counting down the days to when I take off to Italy. 5 more days to go!!! I just got an email about the cooking course I'll be taking on the 16th. I mapped out the place I have to go to. I'm looking forward to it. The theme for this particular cooking course is the Sicilian Kitchen. :-)

Well, I think I'll just go veg on the couch and give my back a break...

Jum goes to the dentist

Well, not really, but close!

I noticed that Jum was having trouble with the dry food again. I suspect that she had a bit of tartar buildup. She was flinching and running away whenever I touched around her mouth. I suspect that there might have been some redness there.

Anyway, I took her to the vet on Friday. Yup. There's some inflamation around her gums. The vet prescribed some antibiotics for her to take. I made an appointment to bring her in for the cleaning and possible extractions. I also got a few cans of catfood for her to eat since the dry kibble was giving her problems.

On Sunday, I tried to give Jum one of the antibiotics. I had the pillpopper doohicky to use for this. I got a hold of Jum, but when I tried to open her mouth, well.. Needless to say, because of the pain she flailed and knocked my hand with the pillpopper with promptly flung the tiny little Baytril to parts unknown (somewhere in the livingroom). Well, I figure that wasn't going to work! So I tried the crushed pill mixed in with food method. Nope, she wouldn't have any of it. I tried 2 batches of catfood to try to get her to eat it. Nope. She wouldn't touch it. So Monday morning I called the vet. He suggested maybe mixing a little bit of liquid from a can of tuna to mask the pill. So that evening, I did just that. I added a little bit of the liquid I drained from a can of tuna (which became tuna salad and dinner) to the catfood. She ate it all UP! Yay! Problem solved.

Anyway, I've had a pretty, long, unproductive day today. Nothing seemed to work and they still don't. Thank goodness tomorrow is Friday. Maybe something will magically fix itself tomorrow. Maybe?

Still being bad about sleep

I don't know why I let myself stay up late even though I know that will be awoken by my alarm at 5AM. Yet I continue to do this. So is it any wonder that I am so very tired today? I am struggling to stay awake at my desk. I am trying hard to keep myself occupied so that my head does not go "thunk" on the desk. I'm just torturing myself here. I really need to exercise some self-discipline and go to bed earlier. Of course, I keep saying that and it never happens. But tonight, I must.

In the meantime, the weekend was rather lackluster. I went to one of these meetup group thingies Saturday evening. The people there were nice enough. We shot a little pool. I'm not 100% sure if it's my thing, but I'll see if I can attend a few more of these functions before passing judgement. Maybe I'm like my bro at times: a bit of a loner. I guess I kinda like doing my own thing. Or if I do do something social it's more with people I already know. Friday evening, I went out with a few of the guys from work to a pub. We spent a few hours having a couple of pints and some munchies. It was all good fun. That sort of thing I like. At least you know how far the conversation can go.

Sunday was really "blah". Maybe because of the weather but I really did not feel like I had the energy to do much. So I passed on the Hash yesterday. Instead, I did some grocery shopping and went to MEC to look for some stuff. I think I spent about $160 on pants, socks and a few other things. Geez, it just added up!

Tonight, after I hope to finally manage to give the cat her antibiotic, I need to hunker down and read up some more on Italy. It's only 2 weeks away!! I haven't really tried to learn much Italian either. Oh I seem so discombobulated! How did I let myself get this way? Sometimes I wish I had all the answer, but you know how it is. You have to keep looking for them. In the meantime, I'll just continue to trudge on.

Found on Facebook

Nerdy Pickup Lines:
1. You're like an exothermic reaction, you spread your hotness everywhere!

2. I wish I was your derivative so I could lie tangent to your curves

3. You’re like a dictionary, you add meaning to my life!

4. If i was an enzyme, i'd be helicase so i could unzip your genes

5. I'm attracted to you so strongly, scientists will have to develop a fifth fundamental force.

6. Baby, you overclock my processor.

7. Be my queen and mate me with your knight moves.

8. Baby, you make my floppy disk turn into a hard drive

9. You make me want to calibrate my joystick without the latest drivers

10.You defragment my life

11. Do you think we can make it a step more serious and disable network sharing?

12. You must be auxin, cuz u r causing me to have rapid stem elongation.

13. Baby, let me find your nth term

14. I don't have a library card, but do you mind if I check you out?

15. Baby i'll treat you like my hw- I'll slam you on the table and do you all night long

16. Hey baby, can i see what's under your radical?

17. If I were an integral, I'd fill you up.

18. I'm a fermata... hold me

19. I think my heart just lagged.

20. I wish I were your second derivative so i could fill your concavities.

21. did you just combust?? Because you're HOT!

22. By looking at you I can tell you're 36-25-36, which by the way are all perfect squares.

23. It doesn’t take a genius to see how gorgeous you are, but if it did, I would be overqualified.

24. Baby, if you were words on a page, you'd be what they call FINE PRINT!

25. What do you say we go back to my room and do some math: Add a bed, subtract our clothes, divide your legs, and multiply

26. Baby, you're a 9.999999999...but you'd be a 10 if you were with me.

27. Baby, everytime i see you, my cardiovascular system gets all worked up

28. I wish I were adenine because then I could get paired with U.

29. What's your sine? It must be pi/2 because you're the 1

30. If my right leg was christmas and my left was Easter, would you like to spend some time between the holidays?

31. You have nicer legs than an Isosceles right triangle.

32. Your so cute you make my zygomaticus muscles contract. (Muscles that make you smile)

33. When you and me get together it's like superposition of 2 waves in phase.

34. Want to meet up so I can excite your natural frequency?

35. If I was sin^2 and you were cos^2 together we would be 1

36. You know.. it's not the length of the vector that counts... it's how you apply the force

37. If I move my lips half the distance to yours... and then half again... and again... etc.... would they ever meet? no? Well in this specific case i am going to disprove your assumption.

38. Your name is Leslie? Look, I can spell your name on my calculator!

39. If i was an endoplasmic reticulum, how would you want me: smooth or rough?

40. I wish I was an Ion so I could form an exothermic bond with you.

41. If my right leg is the cell wall and my left the membrane, do you want to be the cytoplasm?

42. Our love is like dividing by zero.... you cannot define it

43. Lets meet somewhere... you bring your beaker and I'll bring my stirring rod

44. Baby let me be your integral so I can be the area under your curves

45. Hey baby, what's your tanx cosx?

46. Lets get together and test the spring potential of my matress

47. Let's discover our coefficient of friction

48. Baby, you're so gneiss I'll never take you for granite.

49. I less than three you..... (i < 3 you)

50. I heard you're sin because you're always on top when we make tangent

51. You be Flourine and I'll be Francium and maybe later I can give you an electron

52. My sudden protracted cardiac arrhythmia tells me I love you

53. Whoops, I think my binomials just expanded

54. I must be Earth and you must be the Sun, cause the closer I orbit, the hotter you get.

55. Baby I wish I could live on a [integral of 1/cabin d cabin] with you.

56. Excuse me, ma'am, but can I get your seven significant digits?

57. I'm overheating because you're stuck in my head like an infinite loop.

58. You must be chlorine cause you are polarizing my bond!

59. Baby if you let your acid react with my base, you can count on getting 100 MOLES of my water and salt

60. *i'll be the one over your cosx an baby, we can have secx!

61. Would you like to enjoy my laptop, I promise I don't have any viruses...

62. i'm relativistic: the faster I go, the longer I last.

63. That dress would look better accelerating towards the floor at 9.8 m/s/s

64. I'm a star. Wanna taste the Milky Way?

65. I'm attracted to you like the Earth is attracted to the Sun-with a large force inversely proportional to the distance squared.

66. YouTube Myspace and I'll Google your Yahoo

67. I wanna stick to u like glue-cose

68. Baby, I can feel an attraction between you and me, and it's more than just our universal gravitation...

69. I'll "eye" your pod! ;)

70. B equals T x N. I think you and I should study the T and N planes in depth

T and N = osculating plane, which literally means the 'kissing' plane.

71. If I could rearrange the periodic table, I'd put Uranium and Iodine together.

(Uraniums symbol is U
and Iodines symbol is I)

72. Baby, we've got chemistry together... next period.

73. At absolute zero, you would still move me.

74. Hey baby, your Body and Love waves are rocking my bedding

75. How about we make like the change of base law, with you on the bottom, and me on top?

76. Baby if you were a 6 I would want to be your (reflection about the x-axis + then reflection about the y-axis) -->9

77. Hey baby if i supply the voltage and you a little resistance, imagine the current we can make together. (V=IR => (V/R)=I)

78. Baby stop with diet coke, you've got plenty of ASSpertame

79. Yo baby, you want to see me solve a quadratic?

80. Baby, lim (u->me) ∫ e^x = f(u)^n.

81. On a scale of 1-10, you're a solid e to the power of pi

82. I think that convex butts are ALWAYS better than concave butts..you look toned

83. I wish I was your secant line so I could touch you in at least two places!

84. Baby ill be your asymptotes so i can shape your curves...

85. Would you like to see the exponential growth of my natural log?

86. If you were a graphics calculator, i'd look at your curves all day long!

87. Question: Wanna integrate my natural log?
Answer: I'll have to be one over first...

88. hey girl, let's get together and figure out our heat of fusion

89. it's a good thing you've got evaporative cooling, cause i'm gonna make you sweat

90. hey baby, lets figure out the torque of your mass on my rod

91. baby i just drew a pic of you on my ti83 but ur sooo hot my screen melted

92. The way the light reflects off the angles of your head is extremely enchanting.

93. in Old English:
Ich grethe Þae, maec Cwen.

(I greet you, my Queen)

In latin:
You can't decline quinque sex, baby.

(Note: quinque is pronounced "kinky")

94.I don't know if you're in my range, but I'd sure like to take you home to my domain.

95. Hey baby. Want to squeeze my theorem while I poly your nomial?

96. Hey baby, I'm like a rubix cube. THe more you play with me, the harder I get.

97. You're so hot, you must be the cause for global warming.

98. Since distance equals velocity times time, let's let velocity or time approach infinity, because I want to go all the way with you.

99. Your body has the nicest arc length I've ever seen."

100. I hope you know set theory because I want to intersect you and union you.

101. You and I would add up better than a Riemann sum.

102. Can I be the phasor to your electron and take you to an excited state?

103. Let's make like a transcription factor and response element and turn things on.

104. If I were a Shwann cell, I'd squeeze areound your axon and give you a fast action potential.

105. You must be an asymptote, because I just find myself getting closer and closer to you.

106. You're as sweet at 3.14.

107. You must be massive because I'm attracted to you.

108. I won't stop bugging you until I get the address to your home page!

109. You fascinate me more than the fundamental theorem of calculus.

110. My love for you is like a concave function's positive first derivative, because it's always increasing.

111. Let's convert our potential energy to kinetic energy.

112. Why don't we measure the coefficient of static friction between me and you?

113. You're hotter than a bunsen burner set to full power!

114. Baby, together U and I make uranium iodide (UI3)

115. If I were an assembly language, I'd jump to your address, shift right a bit, push it in, pop it out, load a byte into your accumulator, then jump if you're negative.

116. In Euclidean geometry two parallel lines never touch ... let's go back to my place and study some non-Euclidean geometry.

117. My vector has a really large magnitude. Would you care to normalize it?

118. Roses are #FF0000, violets are #0000FF. All my base are belong to you.

119. I 1-sin(theta) you.

120. You and I must have the same natural frequency, because we resonate together.

121. The surface of my cylinder is not a compact metric space.

122. Most women are so complex. They're always like "i! i! i!" But you - you're just so real. (Note: i! does not mean i factorial.)

123. My love for you is like the slope of a concave up function because it's always increasing.

124. Can I plug my solution into your equation?

125. The volume of a general cylinder was known for thousands of years, but you won

126. i want to go through your every procedure, Do your Loops, and program your Booleans

127. I wish I were a predicate so I could be the direct object of your affection.

128. I think if you and i had Hex we'd be a perfect OA

129. Can I bombard your singularity with my rocket ship until you supernova?

130. you are the log(base 10) 10^1...


131. Let's work out our orbicularis oris muscles together!
*orbicularis oris = kissing muscles

132. I've been secant you for a long time

133. The direction fields of my heart all point to you

134. Want to be my substrate/enzyme?

135. You have 206 bones in your body... want one more?

136. Chem students do it on the table periodically

137. If you let me work hard enough, I can give you a dipole moment

138. I love you like an unspoken metaphor. That's why I had to use a simile.

139. Instead of being the derivative, id much rather be the secant so i can touch u not only once, but twice

140. Lets make love like pi; irrational and never ending

141. I've been secant you for a long time

142. The direction fields of my heart all point to you

143. baby lets measure the amplitude of our physical wave

144. baby you're the basis of my mind. no matter what i think of, it all comes back to you

145. Maybe later we can go over to my place and titrate until you reach your end-point...

146. The word of the day is "Legs", lets go back to my place and spread the word

147. Baby, you must be a pile of dinosaur bones, cause I dig you!

148. Baby, you're body is like a hyperbola

149. Baby, you're like a pendulum... you'll only stop when I damp you

150. Are you the square root of 2? because I feel irrational when I'm around you

151. Being with you is like switching to polar coordinates: complex and imaginary things now have a magnitude and direction.

152. Our love is more perfect than 6.
(Six is the first perfect number)

153. You can put a Trojan in my Hard Drive anytime

154. Baby you must be a modulus sign, 'cos whenever you wrap your arms round me i always feel positive!

155. Baby, I'm like an oceanic plate on a gravity slide - I can't wait to subduct beneath your crust!

156. You're so hot you denature my proteins

157. Baby you know this shit isn't USB2.0..it's firewire!

158. Let's just cut to the chase, I wanna hotsync your PDA.

159. Nobody turns me on from a cold boot like you.

160. Don't worry honey, they call it my dual-channel RAM.

161. If you were Anatomy, then I'd be Physiology because they always go together!

162. Want to make the Cold War hot?

163. My court packing plan isn't my only packing plan...

164. Want to play War of 1812? I'll light your White House on fire...

165. There's a reason they say I started the Era of Good Feelings...

166. Can I annex your territory after class?

167. Do you want to help me with my project on the tit- I'm sorry, TET Offensive?

168. I'll be your Secretary of the Interior...

169. I bet if Jefferson had met you, he would have vetoed the Non-Intercourse Act.

170. Want to go back to my place and discuss Big Stick Diplomacy?

171. Want to reenact the Battle of the Bulge?

172. If you were Anatomy, then I'd be Physiology because they always go together!

173. Hey, up for some high-energy quantum tunnelling tonight?

174. If you were a concentration gradient I'd go down on you

175. Girl whenever I am near you, I undergo anaerobic respiration because you take my breath away

176. If you were C6, and i were H12, all we would need is the air we breathe to be sweeter than sugar...

177. we've been differentiating for too long, lets sum it up and integrate

178. you and i add up better than a riemann sum

179. my love for you is a monotonically increasing unbounded function

180. Your beauty defies real and complex analysis.

181. Your hottness is the only reason we can't reach absolute zero.

182. I use my rod of infinite length for more than just simplifying calculations...

183. You must be a magnetic monopole because all i get from you is attraction

184. My love for you is like pi, it's never-ending.

185. I wish we were in telophase, cause then I could admire your cleavage."

186. Let's make our slopes zero (slope of zero means horizontal => bed)

187. baby you must be O2 cuz i m about to combust all over you

188. I just bought a molecular model kit, want to play with my stick and balls?

189.√-1) 2-2sinθ ∫du
√-1) = i
2-2sinθ = cardiod graph (heart)
∫du = u

190. Forget hydrogen you're my number one element

191. You're cute, I'm cute, together we're 2cute!

192. you are like a proton in my core--without you i could never be the same.

193. Hey baby, wanna form a synapse with me and exchange neurotransmitters?

194. Baby, if you were oceanic crust and I was a continent, I'd let you subduct so we can make hot hot magma.

195. I do believe I am your reciprocal; we will be one when we multiply.

196. Hey baby, wanna form a zygote?

197. If I'm the Riemann zeta function, you must be s=1.

198. You're a moving electric charge, and I'm a moving magnetic charge... Wanna flux?

199. If I toss a fair coin, what are my chances of getting head?

200. hey baby, do you need an anatomy tutor? They say i'm the best because i prefer to use a more HANDS-ON approach.

201. Baby, if they made you in Java, you'd be the object of my desire.

202. Baby, if they made you in C, you would have a pointer to my heart.

203. Baby, if they made you in Haskell, it would infer that you were just my type.

204. You're like a Universal Turing Machine; you're the only one that I'll ever need.

205. Like a quantum computation, our paths are entangled.

206. You're like an NP-hard problem of significant size; I could spend the rest of my life with you.

207. If I could program the universe, I would allocate you and I in contiguous memory blocks.

208. If I was an operating system, your process would have top priority.

209. Like a graph with n^2 edges, you complete me.

210. Are you a non volitaile particle? Because you raise my boiling point.

211. If I went binary, you would be the 1 for me.

212. my hypothalamus must be secreting serotonin because baby, i want you!

213. i'm sine and you're cosine, wanna make like a tangent?

214. I sure hope our coefficient of restitution is 0, 'cos when we make contact i never want to part!

215. My love is like communism; everyone gets a share, and it's only good in theory.

216. You + Me = The number of sides in a Mobius Strip

217. Hey baby, let's make a stress-strain curve together.

218. I don't need neurons to stimulate your sensory system.

219. Let 'u' and 'i' be irrational integers such that a real non-monotonic relationship exists for all T = {0 ... infinity}

220. you must be absolute, because every time you're around me, i feel positive

Misc.

I am 42% Addicted to Coffee

Mingle² - Free Online Dating

How caffeinated are *you*?

So I didn't get to sleep as early as I wanted to last night. I did managed to get to bed by 11:00PM at least! I'll try harder. In any case, the 6 hrs I managed to sleep did help a bit. But I was still pretty tired at work.

19 days before I leave on vacation. 17 days if you count the weekend before I fly out of here. I have some mixed feelings about the trip. Part of me is excited about taking a trip to Italy. A part of me is a little nervous because I am going solo. And another part of is sort "Eh." about the whole thing. I guess I've always been more of a "I'll become excite the day I leave." type of person. I might get a little nervous a few days before due to concern over whether I have everything I need. Other than that, it's all good.

Sleeplessness

I still don't know why I'm doing this to myself. I am letting myself get distracted most evenings and staying up until around midnight. I still have my alarm set for 5AM. Right now, I feel very exhausted. I also have a lot of stuff I need to get done this week at work. I think coffee will be my close friend.

I'm tired enough that if I am not doing something I am readily able to just close my eyes and sleep. If I didn't force myself to stay awake and do something I probably would fall sleep right there at my desk. I've really got to go to bed earlier. :p Tonight, 10:00PM, I will go to bed. If I don't, will someone trout me?

Anyway, that aside, there have been asome interesting reading coming from Matthew Good. First off, anyone who is a fan of his music and/or has been a frequent visitor of his web site for at least the past year would probably already be familiar with his condition. This week, in light of a documentary hosted by Stephen Fry, Matthew Good has decided to put into his own words his experience with bipolarity. It's some pretty heavy stuff. It's also quite personal and real. I think it took a lot of strength and courage to come out into the open with this. However, a great number of people really appreciate his sharing of his experiences. From my side, I found it very informational as I do not really know of anyone close to me who suffers from this or any other similar mental illness.

So I salute you, Matthew Good. So many people admire you for your music, your opinion and your honesty. I think they will admire you more now for the strength and courage you have shown in opening yourself to us. I think you've become a greater hero for many. Stay real.

Self-Analysis

To sort of continue something I briefly touched upon yesterday, I find that I am more self-aware of how I am as a person. I feel that I have a better understanding of how I am as well as how I react to things. I'm sure there are still certain aspects of myself that I have yet to figure out, but within time I will realize them.

In some ways, it's rather amusing to be so introspective. Yet, I think that it's good to know these things.

The few of you who read this on a regular basis must think I'm some sort of headcase at times. And I wonder about the same too! But, I think if I really had any major or serious issues, I would probably seek professional help. However, so far, I think I'm doing alright for the most part. Occasionally, I do need to keep myself grounded and wake up to the reality of my environment/surroundings.

That said, I do find that on occasion I probably think a bit too much about things. Thinking is good, don't get me wrong. However, it comes to a point when the thinking becomes a runaway imagination. That's when it becomes bad. When you start to go in that direction, then you start to lose perspective. You start to speculate. You start to go off on different tangents. At some point, the thinking might become more of an obsession. This is not good or healthy. With an obsession, you really start to lose your focus on other things around you. Priorities get shifted. You start to lose control. Emotionally, things may become a runaway train.

Anyway.. I'm not a psychologist or a shrink. However, maybe I should have studied to be one. But as it is, I ended up studying engineering. I'm okay at it, not great. I manage to perform well enough in my job. Am I happy with my job? I suppose it has it moments. As far as my overall satisfaction with what I'm doing is concerned, on a scale of 1 to 10, I would rate my job at about a 6. But keep in mind that I do put my all into my work. I don't ever want to come off looking like a slacker. I put the effort necessary to get things done.

I think I rambled enough for now.

Some times I think that I need to save me from myself. Why do I say that? Well, from the logical side of things I have come to terms about some things in life. However, because I am still human, this thing called emotions and the associated illogical thoughts come into play.

And why am I bringing this up? Well, without going into too much detail, I got an email (in response to one I had sent) that sort of indicates something that from a logical stand point should not bother me, yet for some reason I got a slight knot in my stomach. There wasn't a whole lot of details in the email, so it's based on an assumption, but still...

I suspect that I am going through yet another of those recurring phases. I was doing fine for a while there. I was doing my own thing. However, it just creeps up on me and I am back to doing some things that I told myself to stop doing. I suppose I need some other distractions. But what else could I do? Of course, this damn weather is a factor too. I am getting tired of this dreary, wet, cold weather. I need some sunshine and warmth! Of course, it doesn't help that I am going through a little bit of anxiety.. :-p

Gotta love self-analysis. You can figure out eventually what's going on, but how to fix it all? That's a whole other kettle of fish!

Online Course

Oh yeah. It's been about a week since I registered and paid for this online course with O'Reilly. I've completed about 6 lessons of this first course. I'm just waiting for a couple of the objectives and quizzes to be graded. I guess the "instructor" doesn't work on weekends. :-p

There are 19 lessons on this first course. I'm going at a pretty good speed, I think. Of course, most of this File System stuff I'm not a total stranger to, so that makes things a bit easier. But we'll see later on...

Slug

I really, really dislike rainy, dreary days. I find that they somehow manage to zap the energy out of you. I really did not feel like doing a whole lot today. There were a few things that I did manage to do and got done. Aside from that, not much else. With the raininess, I did not feel like going to the Hash today either. Considering the cold and dampness, it would not have been good for my left knee.

Meanwhile, I find that my washing machine is leaking a little. Great. Just what I needed. Optimistically, I am hoping that it's something simple that can be fixed easily. Pessimistically, it might be easier to just buy a new washer, but this one is just over 5 years old. Plus, I am such a girl when it comes to stuff like this. I know that there's a panel you can open to check out stuff underneath the drum (this is a front load washer), but I'm afraid of doing something stupid. Maybe one of the guys at work could give a hand with such things.

Yesterday, I had my appointment to get my hair done. It's been such a long time since I had my hair done. I decided to just stick to my natural color in covering up the greys. I got my hair trimmed and layered. The ends were starting to thin and become brittle and split. Since I last had my hair done in September, it had also gotten rather long. It was also starting to annoy me. Anyway, I always find it nice to relax and get some pampering.

Yes, another rip-roaring, exciting weekend.

Sometimes we need to be reminded...

.. As well as to think about this when things seem a bit down in the dumps. I referenced it when it was first posted, but the original post has since been deleted. However, someone in the MG Community asked about it and luckily someone had kept a copy of it. And here I will help to immortalize those words. I think quite a few people were really moved by this.

"I Fall Down. You Get Up. Not A Sound Between Us.

Good love is a few months. Of bliss, of nothing wrongs, of sparkle, of tight gripping hands, of the inability to get close enough.

Bad love is a lifetime.

Bad love is the greatest test known to us. It is our most prized pain - so sought after, so hard to find. Bad love is work, giving-in, compromise, forgiveness, the unflinching support for another even at their most humiliated, their most vulnerable. Bad love is not on television, at the movies, on vacation, or at the bank. Bad love is not in the church, the temple, or under the dome. Bad love is not all around us.

Bad love is what we find when we let go enough to actually be found by someone else."

- Matthew Good, February 14th, 2007

Constantly working at doing something

Well, I went ahead and did it again. I registered for more classes. Now hang on a second! This is not yet another classroom type of class! I decided to take the plunge and enroll in one of the online certificate programs at O'Reilly. I decided to go for the Linux/Unix System Administration Certificate Series. It looks like something I can handle. Plus it's something that I am interested in.

There's about 19 lessons to complete in the first course. I've already finished 3 of them and taken 2 quizzes. It's not that bad. The way it's designed, you learn by doing and trying things out repeatedly. I think for some people, this is the best way to learn. I know that I would probably go out of my mind if I sat through another theoretical technical course. I found that the classes where you had exercises to do during the class were more helpful than the ones where you just listened to a lecture.

Other than that, I've been pretty busy at work with some testing. I think that I have been concentrating on getting the testing done that I am somewhat mentally drained and exhausted. I need a really good solid night's sleep to recover.

In the meantime, I went ahead and planned the next social gathering. I figure on doing an 80's movie night. I'm thinking of making some ribs in the slow cooker. I'd have the folks bring drinks and dessert to round things out. :-) I hope enough people come. It'd be more fun that way.

Assumptions that annoy me

Well, I've sort of started to prowl the dating sites again. However, I really try to limit my time on them as I've found in the past that they can eat up a lot of your time. In any case, I had recently updated my pic and profile on one of the sites. The other day, I received this message.

Date: Apr 06 at 3:38 PM EDT
Subject: opposite of...

what i used too read in asian profiles... readind you, look more western than asian....

i am not critical at all.... i am just observative... i even like...

asian are more pragmatic normally.... and more live to work....


First of all, it pisses me off to no end that just because I'm Asian that I just immigrated here. Secondly, I wish that some people would at least proofread what they wrote. Maybe they've been communicating in broken English too often? :-p Needless to say, I did not bother to reply back to this guy. Plus, it also seems like he's got a thing for Asians.

Mid-Life Shopping Continues

Gaah! I've done it again.. And I think I *was* doing alright... I think?

Recent purchases...

- Yamaha DVD player
- Viewsonic 20" LCD TV
- Deuter Day Pack
- some clothes

Oh, of course this is on top of the trip... :-p

Hooray for plastic!!

Wheee!

I think I've lost it.

Now, I like to check out what's happening in my old home town. This usually means checking out boston.com. Occasionally there's some interesting rumors about the Red Sox or something. Today, I came across a special report that was done recently with regards to the soldiers who've returned from serving in Iraq. It's sad to read about the lack of treatment or help the veterans are getting after they have come back home. This is in light of the fact that their own government is trying to push off a pullout timeline. This same government has allocated millions into this war against terrorism. Did they forget to take care of their own when they come back from fighting? Apparently so, it seems.

And here's another tidbit I found. It's nice to know that there are still people out there who believe that they can make a difference. Now, what really ends up happening down the line, one can only hope. I wish this kid much luck in his future endeavours.

Aside from the political bullshit that we see pretty much on a daily basis now, not much has really been happening on a personal level. I get up, go to work, do my thing, go home, sleep. Repeat as necessary. Today is a rather rainy and dreary day so it increases any already exisiting tedium.

More petfood recalls. I don't know what to do any more. I noticed that IAMS put out a full page ad to declare that none of their dry petfoods contain wheat gluten. I suppose to some degree that is a comfort. My dilemma now is what to feed these guys. There's still a big tin of Prescription Science Diet w/d. Do I let them finish this? Or do I get a bag of some other food instead? *sigh*

I have a weakness. My weakness is shopping. I was having this discussion with a friend of mine. He has his own weakness. His weakness is this need to hit on/pick up every hot chick he sees. The sad thing is that he's relatively successful at it. The other day he told me that he managed to collect 5 phone numbers from different women. I told him he needed help. He's out of control.

I'm part Geek.

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So I'm only about 2/3 Geek. :p

World's Longest Undefended Border

Well, I find it ironic that with the US on occasion complaining about potential terrorists coming into the US via Canada, that they cannot even afford to maintain their share in the upkeep of the border. For a country that is able to allocated billions for their war against terror they cannot afford to mow the lawn, so to speak. To me this means that the US will complain about things when it suits them. I suppose this also means it would be easier to jump the border under cover of tall grass and shrubs.

Go figure.

New one from Matthew Good

Well, the man did it! He made available one of the songs from his upcoming album Hospital Music. It's pretty good! It'll sound better when I get a chance to listen to it from the other computer. I'm afraid the speakers on the ibook just don't cut it. :-p

Have a listen, folks! (Link to Matthew Good's website is on the right.) :-)

Untitled

Sometimes I don't feel like coming up with a title for an entry. I know I don't need to have one, but at times you feel that you need to put something meaningful there. So tonight, I am just going to leave it untitled. I just can't be bothered tonight.

So what's new and exciting in my world? Uhm, I'm afraid not much really. I had my Mandarin class tonight. I talked to my friend that I take the class with. I seriously think (and another friend agrees) that he's going through a mid-life crisis. And without going into too many details, I think he knows it himself. Anyway, he's gone ahead and signed up for some charity organization that sends people out to the Ukraine to help the homeless and the needy. His trip is planned for June. He said that he had always want to do something like this. Aside from that he also is taking a course on religion. He assured me it wasn't an attempt to recruit people.

If it means anything, he's also in his late 30's He's divorced and had been travelling a lot for work for the past few years. Only recently has he actually stayed in town for more than a few weeks. His new role does not have him travelling as much now. I think he's at a loss as to what to do next in his life. That would explain him getting involved with stuff to fill up the time. Not too different from what I have been doing.

My other friend (who agreed with the above diagnosis) is currently living on the other side of the world. He's also in his 30's but slightly younger. He's also single. We have some rather frank discussions about stuff. He's currently on some secret 6 month plan. He can't tell me anything about it until it's over. I guess if I do make it out there in November he will have to tell me just what the f* he's been doing. I have some idea, but I won't jeopardize things by mentioning my theories here.

In the meantime, I think I'll just continued to coast along. See if anything interesting happens along.

Life on the 'Net

I find it incredible how there seems to be a parallel universe of sorts. I'm talking about the Internet: the virtual world that many of us partake in.

I think those of us who have been on the 'Net for any length of time should be savvy enough to know how things work. It's still a bit the wild, wild west out there. You have to be careful where and how you tread.

For those who have made themselves a name and a presence on the Internet know that with the recognition there would be both detractors and admirers. They have to deal with both kinds of people.

I think that one very good and recent example is Matthew Good. He's been an active Netizen for a number of years. This past weekend he launched his newly redesigned website. As well, he made a couple of entries on his blog. One entry referenced the recent launch of a blog by his ex. Needless to say, given what the public knows of the whole affair, all sorts of backlash was unleashed on the woman. Now, I certainly don't condone this sort of behavior, yet I don't think it was entirely unexpected.

I think that after at least a day or two of really nasty comments being posted on her blog, the website was taken down.

Well, not wanting to rehash the whole story, you can go check it out yourself (see links on the right). I'm quite proud of the fact that Matthew Good has managed to keep himself composed throughout this whole sordid affair. His comment to David Gratton demonstrates this. Taking the high road is the way to go. No need to stoop down to the level of some people.

----

Meanwhile, I've been on a sort of 80's music kick tonight. I went through all the stuff i had in iTunes and came up with a playlist with just over 4 hours of music. :)

Alt/Indie/Rock

I've been updating my iTunes with some stuff recently... Dinosaur Jr., Modest Mouse, Tom Waits, The Replacements. I guess to some degree I am rediscovering alternative/indie/rock. Coincidentally, Dinosaur Jr and Modest Mouse have shows coming up here in Montreal. Should I buy tickets? Or should I wait until I find someone to go with? I dunno.

The weekend wasn't too bad. I caught up on a few things Saturday. And during the course of some IM'ing with a friend from work, got invited to join him and a few friends for sushi. Yum!! I hadn't had sushi for a while. The place we went to is suppose to be one of the nicer sushi places. I ordered a few standbys plus one of the house specials. Well, in the end my bill came close to 3 digits before tip! Ouch! I mean, I knew it wasn't going to be cheap, but I just didn't pay attention. Anyway, I was REALLY stuffed in the end.

I could have gone to the Hash on Sunday, but since I had a pretty late Saturday (we went to Starbucks after dinner), I sorta slept in and was still rather tired. I think I will try to make it to this weekend's Hash.

Otherwise, nothing too exciting...

Oh yeah, well, there was the election today.. The current results seem to indicate a minority government with the Liberals in charge. The race is still very tight. I guess we'll know in the morning when the dust settles.

More inane babblings

So here I am on a Friday evening sitting in front of my computer. I'm chatting with a few friends online. I am listening to some music. I am burning a few DVDs... What's wrong with this picture?

Anyway...

So I peruse Craig's List from time to time. Sometimes there's some interesting posts. Sometimes not. Tonight, for whatever reason, I decided to respond to a couple of them. I really didn't care if they wrote back or not. If they did, great! If not, oh well.

Well, one of them did write back. After a few email exchanges, he asks for a picture. Oh well. Fair is fair, I guess. He did post a picture of himself on CL. But being somewhat cynical these days, I figure, whatever. If I don't hear back from him, then I know. If he does write back, there might be a polite response. In any case, I'm not going to lose sleep over it. Heh! I did send him a picture of me after a hash. Hair's a bit askew and I've already had a beer there. That would explain the stupid-ass smile on my face!

I think I have for a while been saying to myself that I really should just take things in stride. Not to take things too seriously and just live! I guess it's one thing to say it and it's another to actually start believing it. I think I have finally come to the point where I am starting to believe what I'm saying.

I am just going to plow on ahead and move forward. Whatever happens happens. I cannot control that which I can't control. You know. The usual stuff. :-) So it's onward and upward (I guess?).

Aside from all that, I don't think I'll be doing anything TOO exciting. I might go out and do a little shopping. I might also do some baking! :-o

So, I am capable of keeping myself well entertained. :) For the time-being anyway.

Slightly Bored

It's a bit quiet at work this week. But they seem to have come up with stuff for me to fill in these gaps. My latest is to work at updating a 162-page Word document that I've complained about. Since I am currently the main user of said document, who better to update than me? Oh well. I suppose I just couldn't avoid that much longer.

My exam on Tuesday went better than I thought it would. It wasn't that much different than the project assignment given, but I think the instructions for the exam was better. Anyway, towards the end I started to get a bit fed up and wanted to finish up. I know the last part was not completed 100%, but I think I got most of it done.

The camera class last night was fun in that we got to shoot in a studio environment. After the instructor gave some explanation of the use of lighting, we were left to do what we could. It was fun to try all of this. I think I took some good shots.

Pet Foods
Since the news broke out late last week about the tainted pet food killing pets, I started to wonder about the soft/canned food I was feeding Finster towards the end. I know that I had fed him some of that Iams Select Slices. But in thinking about it, I think Finster was already on the downslide when I fed him the soft foods. The canned Royal Canin I was feeding him in the end was not affected by the recall. So, I really believe now that Finster's decline was due to kidney failure due to age and not by bad food.

Monday night, I had started to watch Noir. It's an anime I picked up a while ago. I got the entire box-set. I think I will watch another disc tonight.

Wow! It's kinda nice not to have class tonight! :-o

Flurries

That's what I see outside my window at work at the moment. I don't exactly have a nice view of anything. In fact, I have a view of the roof. Just lovely. But at least I can see what the weather is like out there!

Yes, I survived the pub crawl Friday evening. Well, it did help that I did not have more than 2 pints of anything the entire evening. I do know my limits. Even after the 2 pints, I did start to feel a bit woozy at the 4th pub where I had just a coke. :-p I guess walking around after downing the pints goes straight to your head. I really needed some air otherwise I probably would have lost it. I had wanted to do half pints, but at the first place (which was actually the 2nd because we were late), they accidentally poured me a full pint. At the next place, they just didn't do half pints, so I had a full pint of Guinness there. After that it was Coke, water, then nothing. I think I started to head home around 11PM. I know. It's not terribly late, but I wasn't going to drink much more and I was planning to drive home (car was at work).

And the rest of the weekend? Well, I was a total slacker. I did next to nothing. I did not go out anywhere. I also realized yesterday that there wasn't much I needed from the supermarket either, so I did not need to get any groceries. Scary, huh? I did at least take care of some usual household chores like laundry. I finally cleaned the Roomba. I have been very neglectful of it. And it did need a bit of a cleaning! :-p

Yes, my life is just chock full of excitement! I suppose to compensate for that, I am looking forward to my trip in May.

In the meantime, I have been listening to some other stuff. I've been listening to The Decemberists. They sound a little like They Might Be giants. Not bad. I've also been listening to some other stuff that I've collected recently, like Dinosaur Jr. I've also been listening to The Frames being that it was just St. Patrick's Day and all. Not a bad band. They're suppose to play here in Montreal some time in April. I wonder if I can interest someone in going to see them with me. I'd like to try to catch the occasional show from time to time.

I am so overdue for a trim. I called the salon for an appointment. Apparently, my hairdresser just got back from vacation. I wanted a Saturday morning appointment. The first available Saturday isn't until April 7th. Oh well. I've already waited this long. I last had my hair done in September!!! :-p I think my hair has grown about 4 inches. The grays are really rearing their ugly heads. I'm also starting to get these short hairs growing out. Not a total disaster, but I need to try to get things tamed back.

So aside from the usual mundanity that is my life, work has been somewhat uneventful. I wrote up a test report this morning. Helped out someone with an issue they had. I have to coordinate getting some equipment to finish up a test case. Waiting to see if I could possible get the equipment after 5PM today. Maybe not. Eh. Nothing too exciting. :-p

Rate My Life

This Is My Life, Rated
Life:	6.5
Mind:	6.6
Body:	6.6
Spirit:	6.4
Friends/Family:	4.2
Love:	3.1
Finance:	8.1
Take the Rate My Life Quiz

Things that make you go "Hmm..".

Busy Bee

It's been a somewhat busy week.

I booked my vacation. I have stuff to test at work. I have my classes. I had to hunt down "cheap" airfares.

The testing at work went well yesterday. Today, on the other hand, was a bit of a disaster. :-p I managed to do a few things in the morning, but when it came time to execute a simple test call, nothing worked! :-p I checked the usual stuff, nothing. Then I submitted a trouble ticket to have the problem looked into. One of the guys called and left a message at lunch time. I called back and he said to call him when I went back to the test plant. I said, okay, in 10 minutes. When I did call him back he wasn't at his desk. I waited a little bit. After about 15-20 minutes, I tried his desk again. No answer. Then I tried his mobile. He's in a fscking meeting! He asked me to get in touch with another guy! So I called the other guy. He was busy (also overloaded) with other stuff but would try to get back to me in half an hour.

In the meantime, one of the guys in my group came down to see if he could help out. He did some tracings. I attempted to make some test calls. Then the other guy finally came by. He still had other problems to work on. Then another guy from my group came down to give a hand. More tracing was done. We're sort of managed to narrow things down a bit, but not 100% sure what the problem is. I reload the software in the node on the theory that some configuration was changed somewhere. Nope, that didn't do it. By now it was 5PM, but we managed to point a finger at the suspect component. We'll have to wait until morning for someone to look at it.

It was not a very productive afternoon workwise, BUT, I did manage to book my flight for Rome! :-D

Elsewhere, there was an article posted by Samar Mazloum on the Matthew Good site. In one of the comments there was a quote from the Joy Luck Club:

“Losing him does not matter. It is YOU who will be found, and cherished.”

It's something I will need to keep in mind.

Tomorrow: St. Paddy's Day Pub Crawl. Wish me luck!

La Dolce Vita

Well, after some hemming and hawing, I finally made the decision to go ahead and book a trip to Italy. I decided to go in May since it might be a bit too warm come late June.

This is the trip that I plan to take. I'm kinda looking forward to this. I've never taken taken an organized tour. I've always been leery of the coach tours. Since this is considered a small-group (not more than 15) tour, I figure it can't be that bad. The pricing is reasonable as well. I just need to sort out the air portion of this trip soon. I've only put down a deposit for the tour. I need to pay off the balance in 2 days.

Well, that's the big news for the day. Aside from that, I've sent off an email to my C++ instructor yesterday indicating that I will not be able to complete the course. I kinda said I would still come to class tonight, but then, what's the point? So here I sit still until time for the 2nd class (XML). I'm doing okay in the XML course. But even with that one I am starting to get a little lazy about. I really didn't do much more the the "project" assignment last night other than to burn the files onto a CD and print out the files. :-p

Anyway...

Springing Forward

Thanks to Dubya, we in North America will be springing forward an hour tonight. We will be losing an hour of sleep a few weeks earlier than usual. I haven't really had a chance to read all the funky logic behind this decision. In any case, I need to make sure all my clocks and watches have been adjusted. :-p

Today, I think I managed to do as little as possible. I really didn't want to work on any programming assignments. I *might* try to finish off the XML assignment Monday night. I absolutely do not have the energy to work on the C++ assignments at all. I think that that class is a total write-off at this point. I need to either talk to the instructor Tuesday or send him an email.

I've been thinking about what to do about vacation this year. I've been trying to get some ideas by looking at sites like GAP Adventures and Intrepid Travel. I'm not sure if I want to visit Europe or Central America. Do I want to visit urban areas? Do I want to be outdoors with Nature? There's one trip that looks interesting. It's an Alaska and Yukon Adventure. It's a bit pricey, but considering how out of the way you are and all, it's to be expected. I'm still mulling it over. I would need to save up a few bucks for that trip.

Otherwise, it's been a quiet Saturday. It's nice to not do much of anything today. Well, okay.. I did do some laundry. :-p

Sometimes...

Sometimes I really wonder what the heck is going on in my head. Last week, I was in such a state that I didn't know what to think about anything any more. I really wonder if it isn't because I have been running on approx 4-5 hrs of sleep most nights for the past month and a half? I think there was a study done on the effects of sleep deprivation. I probably have been slowly depriving myself of sleep. :-p

Well, I hope this lack of sleep will come to an end soon. My Tuesday evening classes will come to an end soon. I have 3 more weeks of the Wednesday night class. And tonight's class was number 4 with 6 more to go. I think I was crazy to do this! :-p

I'm doing it to myself again tonight. I've been home since a little after 10. It's now about 11:30PM and I have not gone to bed yet. I even told myself I would go straight to bed when I got home. I wonder if the computer and the Internet aren't to blame. I find them such easy distractions.

Meanwhile, there have been some interesting posts on Matthew Good's website. Dale Mugford's post was most interesting. I hadn't realized what the significance of it was until I found out it was International Women's Day (or week). The post also reminded me of when my sister used to work at a county correctional institute in Massachusetts. I forget how long ago this was. I think she was also working on her Master's at the time. In any case, I remember her telling me about how she has regular group sessions with these mostly big, burly guys who were there doing time for committing some sort of crime against women. She had mentioned that some of the men continue to deny that they did anything wrong. It almost seemed that there was no way to get these guys to admit that what they did was wrong at all. I give my sister a lot of credit to take on such a job. She's not a terribly big person. And I'm sure some of these guys do tr to use their physical size to try to intimidate my sis as well. However, knowing how tough my sister is, I don't think she ever waivered. Of course, I'm sure there was armed security nearby!

Anyway, enough for now...

This River Called Life

(Thanks, dman!)

Yes, it seems that lately I have been somewhat philosophical about things. So, as a result this analogy was formed. I'm sure it's not totally original, but this is just my take on it. And no, I have not read anything else along these lines. So it's all original from me...

I see myself floating along this river called Life. It's not really a terribly large boat that I float about in. It's large enough for myself and whoever happens to climb aboard.

As I float down this river, I occasionally pass close to certain shores. These places almost always had something to offer. Some good, some not so good. I avail myself to what these landings have to offer. The shoreleave might be brief, or they might last for some time. Eventually, I continue down the river.

Occasionally, someone will come along for the ride in my little boat. The ride with me varies. Some stay for a while. Some for not very long. Sometimes the ride gets a little bumpy on board!

For now, I am along on this boat. Sometimes I see someone waving from the shore. But I can't really tell sometimes.

Ahoy there!

Mid-life?

I might have touched upon this earlier in some form. It just seems that this subject has appeared again in my mind. I guess I have lately (again?) been taking stock of my life. What have I done? What have I accomplished? You know. The usual questions about life.

I find that I oftentimes have too many thoughts and ideas going on through my head. Sometimes I will have certain revelations, but I don't get the chance to act upon them or to record them for reference. Then such revelations are forever lost. Sometimes I will think about what I'm good at or what I would like to do. Again, I don't seem to have or find the chance to act upon them.

I suppose that life can be full of missed opportunities. But how do you know when an opportunity really presents itself to you? Sometimes I feel so clueless about such things. Just how many opportunities have I lost along the way? How many opportunities was I able to identify along the way? I don't think I'll ever really know.

I suppose there are times when I feel that have pretty much settled for my lot in life. It's not necessarily all that bad my life. However, I'm pretty sure it's not as fulfilling as it could be. So what do I need to do to change things? I find that I am rather wishy-washy about things. Again, I tend to "float" along this river called life. I might occasionally come across a fork where I would need to make a decision. Have I taken the road less travelled? Or have I been taking the path of least resistance? I can't exactly back-paddle to find out. This is the direction I have been heading. I may as well just continue down it. See what's up around the curve.

I remember when I was high school that I had a tendency to write an awful lot. However, I question now the quality of the writing I was doing back then. I wish I still had the compositions I wrote back then. It would give some indication as to what sort of style I wrote, if there was some sort of style. Also, it would help figure out what was going on in my head back then. High school was not exactly my most favorite years. But I'll save that narrative for another blog entry.

With regards to writing, I guess at one point in time I had aspirations of being a writer. However, I don't think I ever had the imagination for it. I remember making a few feeble attempts at writing about something. It never amounted more than a page of stuff. It was only much later that I realize I did not quite have the "experience" or knowledge to really write about something (fiction or not) intelligently. If I were to write something, I would want it to be somewhat broad in scope. Something that would in a way give the big picture. I guess it's rather difficult to explain this.

Anyway, I played hooky this evening from class. I guess all of the evening classes are starting to take a toll. Also, trying to maintain some sense of a social life is tough too. I hashed for the first time in over a month this past weekend. It was nice to to something other than homework. I like talking to people. However, trying to be social when you're slightly inebriated is not so good. :-p

New Album Coming

(The following is an unpaid endorsement!)

So Matthew Good finally posted some info about his upcoming album. It sounds like it ought to be quite good! For the few of you out there who read this blog regularly, please give his stuff a listen! If you like what's done so far, hopefully you will like or love what's coming soon! :-)

BlogShares?

WTF?

Okay, given that I don't web surf as extensively as I have in the past, it had never occurred to me that someone would actually come up with this. Gee! I think the $1,000 valuation is rather generous!

Quotables

A friend of mine who recently moved to China put this up on his page. I like the philosophy of this quote:

"In life, people tend to wait for good things to come to them. And by waiting, they miss out. Usually, what you wish for doesn't fall in your lap; it falls somewhere in the vicinity of your lap, and you have to recognize it, stand up, and put in the time and work it takes to get to it. This isn't because the universe is cruel. It's because the universe is smart. It has its own cat-string theory."

-N.S.

Comments

It seems that no matter what I try, things somehow end up becoming complicated one way or another. Sometimes I just wish things to be simple. But I guess life was never meant to bo that way. At least not in this day and age...

It's Saturday Night

And I am sitting at home. Well, I did have a few things I wanted to get done, but that's besides the point.

I did manage to get up early enough and pedal for about 45 minutes. I hadn't pedaled in about 2 months, so this was way overdue. I did it while watching a Pixies DVD. I think it's better than just listening to music. It's a visual distraction. Anyway, let's see if I can get up early enough tomorrow morning and pedal again.



I went to the supermarket to get ingredients for vegetarian chili. I wasn't sure just how much the recipe was going to make. I ended buying 2 cans of everything needed. In the end, I used 2 cans of diced tomatoes, one can each of red kediney beans, black beans, chick peas, and white kidney beans. The recipe called for 15 oz. cans, but the ones I bought were 19 oz. I guess it all added up. I tweaked the recipe a little bit as well. Instead of worcestershire sauce, I added traditional chili seasonings like ground cumin and oregano. I also threw in some chopped jalepeno. In the end, it came out pretty good. Rather tasty! :) I had also made a lemon poppy seed cake.

Later, I went over to a friend's place. We went over a map to figure out what trail to lay for the Hash tomorrow. I think we came up with a good trail for both runners and walkers. It covers quite a bit of area. I hope he can make it to the Hash. In any case, the temps tomorrow shouldn't be too bad. It's good to get out and get some fresh air.

I did manage to take a few pics today:


That was quite a bit of snow that fell yesterday...

Anyway.. I think I might try to go to bed "early" tonight. :-p

hmmm...

Could this be my problem?

Working from home

Well, today's storm dumped quite a bit of snow here. I really don't know what the final count is but the forecast indicated somewhere between 20-30cm of the white stuff. And with the wind blowing it all over the place, I'm sure it looks like more.

Because of this snow storm I decided to work from home. Actually, I sort of decided on it yesterday. So I managed to bring my laptop home. I tried to get a few things done, but some thing just refused to work. Oh well. What can you do?

In the meantime, I'm still in a bummin' mood. I really don't know why. It just seems tht lately, I'll just fall into a bit of a funk. I guess it might last a couple of days. Sometimes I wonder what the triggers are for these moods. I don't think it's entirely hormonal. Then again, you never know.

I have really got to stop thinking too much about things. I've got to re-focus on doing my own thing. I've also got to stop reading too much into stuff.

During the course of my thinking too much, I've come up with the theory that he may have built a wall up around himself. Or, at least, he hasn't been very open about himself. Unlike myself who would tell everyone my life story if asked. I guess I am much more open about things. I don't have much to hide. Of course, there are some things I won't disclose. Everyone's got some sort of secrets tucked away in the proverbial closet somewhere.

So, this weekend... I've got a few things I'd like to get done tomorrow. I might try to hit the supermarket early tomorrow to pick up some stuff to make chili and cake with. I guess that means I should put together a shopping list. Then, if the weather is agreeable, I might go out and try to take some photos again. This time, I will remember to wear a different pair of glasses so I can actually read the readings in the camera! :-)

Anyway, I am almost in the mood to watch a chick click or something...