Fresh air and exercise?

In an effort to get myself out of the house and get more exercise, I came across a flyer in the mail for this. I figure, what the heck! What have I got to lose. And for the cost ($173 total for the Fall session, max. 2 classes/week), it's not bad. It sure beats whatever the local gyms and workout emporiums are charging. So, I hope this works out!

Today is a sort of lazy Saturday I guess. I did go out earlier to run a few errands. I feel like cooking up a few things this week that I haven't cooked in a long while, so I picked up some stuff for that at the local asian super market. Plus, I needed a bag of rice. It's nice to have this place nearby. It saves me the trip of having to go all the way to Chinatown for some stuff.

Anyway, I need to decide what I feel like cooking up tonight...

Week 34, Saturday

I think it was a good thing I went ahead and made a dentist appointment for Monday morning. It seems that a filling in one of the upper molars may be on the way out. this kinda sucks because it makes more wary of how I'm chewing my food. Depending on what it is, I find that I need to chew on my right side more just to avoid getting things caught on this rough bit I feel on the tooth. *sigh*

Otherwise, today I'm just going to run a few errands and clean up a bit. The parents and bro are coming up next weekend, so I really need to get a jumpstart on the cleaning and tidying up. :p

Week 34, Friday!

This is the Quote of the Day that came up on my iGoogle page:

I believe we are on an irreversible trend toward more freedom and democracy - but that could change.
- Dan Quayle

Rather scary, don't you think?

So the guys (2 of them) came over last night to help me with my dryer. We pulled it out so that we can access the duct. It didn't look too blocked up. I realized that I could open up the part where the lint filter goes in. I opened it, took a look and saw quite a bit of build-up there, but it wasn't totally blocked up. I cleaned that out as well. R took the grill off on the back of the dryer. It looked clear there as well. We threw in a wet towel I had just laundered to see how it ran. After about 10 minutes, we could see that there was air blowing out from the duct. But occasionally we'd hear some hesitation from another fan somewhere. We reconnected the duct and put the dryer back in place. We ran the dryer again. The top of the dryer felt quite a bit hotter than before. I pulled the dryer out a little and the duct connecting to the dryer popped off. D'oh! In any case, the dryer was still getting a bit too hot.

Putting the closet door back in properly took a good half hour. For some reason the screw to secure the top hinge required a lot of torque to properly tighten.

Meanwhile, after all that, it seems that something inside the dryer might be broken or malfunctioning. R and K want to come back another time to open up the dryer to have a look. I said, not tonight! So I guess I'll have plan for the next adventure in appliance repair!

Week 34, Wednesday

Today, I actually had a decent day at work. How's that? Well, I felt that I was actually doing something productive and got to learn a few things. So I left the office today with a feeling of accomplishment. :-)

Meanwhile, here I am lying in bed. I turn on the TV and it happens to be on OLN. Pilot Guides is on. The host is in Florence. Ahhh... I really liked Florence. One day I'd like to visit Florence again. Maybe my heart wasn't totally there when I was in Italy in May. I guess at times I almost felt a bit mopey. Not good, I know. Anyway, I think I did enjoy the trip for the most part. The people in the group I travelled with were all nice and friendly people. So I guess I really can't complain.

Anyway, I've got a buddy from work to come over tomorrow to give me a hand with my dryer issue. Hopefully, it can be resolved without my having to call and pay someone to fix the problem. We'll see.

Week 34, Monday

*YAWN!* Yeah, Monday.

Okay, so I had my hair taken care of finally today. If you have Facebook or are a contact on Flickr, you can see how it came out. So far the comments have been good. :)

Meanwhile, I finally took a few pics of the sexy keyboard...

Overhead shot:


Frontal shot:


Side shot:

Week 33, Saturday

Okay, I'm kinda boycotting that one dating site again this week. Again I am going through the phase of just getting frustrated with that site. It just stresses me, pisses me off, distracts me and aggravates me. So there. Let's see how long it lasts this time. Those sites so easily sucks up so much of your time. Before you know you wonder where the hell the time has gone and you don't have time to do anything else. It just takes too much energy sometimes.

Last night, I went out with a couple of the guys from work for a beer after work. We went to Brutopia. It was cool. I had the Cubano sandwich which I find quite tasty. And it was quite filling too! :p I had a pint each of the honey and honey brown. Then in the end I had a half pint of the raspberry which had an artificial taste to it. I don't think I'll have that one again.

I got home around half past midnight to the sounds of a screaming and hungry cat. Needless to say I had to feed BS. I dorked around a bit before going to bed. I think I hit the hay around 1:30. Before 5AM, BS started to harass me to get fed. It's as if he was on a schedule or something. I finally managed to keep him at bay at least until 7:30. It's now about 11AM and it seems that he would like a late morning snack. Uhm, no, I don't think so. I don't want to spoil him too much.

My friend J did a Tarot card reading for me the other day. I won't mention too much what the question was but the part that sort of described the current situation was rather accurate. Hmm.. I'll have to re-visit the reading at some point. I've always been a bit torn when it comes to these things. Never really sure how much of it to believe. Anyway...

Week 33, Friday

BP this morning: 118/78

I got my sexy keyboard yesterday. It's so much more slim than the white Apple keyboard. I'll have to take a pic for comparison. The feel of it is not bad. I kinda like it! Ahhh! Sometimes it's the little things in life that make you happy.

BS seems to be doing alright. However, he's been so demanding when it comes to feeding time. He wants his canned food NOW. Well, he's going to have to wait a bit longer tonight because I plan on going out tonight after work for a couple of beers. BS will have to be happy with the regular dry kibble until I get home. :p

Other than the keyboard, I think I have been okay when it comes to spending. However, I am not looking forward to seeing the vet charges on the next MC bill. :p *sigh* Just can't win sometimes. I might have to take another chunk from savings next month to pay it down some more.

Anyway...

Meanwhile...

I thought this was just too damn sexy to pass up. I ordered it Friday. It hasn't shipped yet.

BP reading this AM: 117/78. Not bad. My morning readings have been pretty consistent so far. I keep forgetting to take my reading later in the day to see how that's going. I'll have to try to remember tonight after I get home.

Last night, I made a batch of black beans and rice. I cooked some salmon to go with it. I cut up some fruit for some fruit salad. I had bought some local blueberries, but I wasn't too impressed with them. I think tonight I need to eat some salad. I need more vegetable intake. :p

I nearly had a fit last night when I checked the price of an itinerary I had saved on Expedia. It gave me a price of just over $4000!! I was like, "WTF?!?!" When I first put this itinerary in (YUL-HKG-PVG-NRT-YUL) it quoted me about $1666. I ranted to my brother about it. Afterwards, I looked again and noticed that for some reason the departure date was November 18th. I thought I had saved it as November 17th. I changed it and updated the price for that itinerary. It came back as $1656. WHEW! But I think I will definitely need to look into purchasing this flight very soon before I get hit with that kind of whammy again! :-p

In the meantime, I need to start hunting for hotels in Hong Kong. Since I'm pretty sure I'll have some place to stay in Shanghai and Tokyo, I think I can afford to pay for my folks' room in HK. I just need to find something decent for under $100.

Bleh! :p

When too much is too much?

I thought this was rather interesting.

I like to drink coffee myself. I think the most I've ever had in ONE day was maybe 4 cups. But again, that was during the course of a day. I don't think caffeine affects me the same way as other people. I don't find that it "perks" me up. What I think it will do to me is interrupt my sleep pattern if I have some late enough in the day. Otherwise, if I'm feeling tired and sleepy, I will still feel tired and sleepy. I just like the taste of coffee.

Now double espressos on the other hand. That's got a bit more kick, I think.

Quickie summation

I feel a bit lazy today to give much of an update.

I picked up BS on Saturday. They retested him. The urea came back closer to within normal range. The creatine however was still slightly higher than the normal range. This could indicate the start of kidney problems. I'm not too worried. Just have to feed BS alright and hopefully things will be stable.

BS was squawking a lot this weekend. I don't think he was happy with his incarceration at the vet's. He didn't eat much during the day there but ate everything they left him at night when it was quiet. What a fraidy cat! The vet prescribed him some medication to take for 6 days. I googled it and it seems that this is what they would probably give for diarrhea of unknown origin. Fun. BS's appetite has not waned. He's pretty much eaten everything I put in front of him. Haven't seen much output from him since Saturday. I'll give it another day for his system to process his intake. :-p

Meanwhile, for some reason, I was just not feeling overly motivated this weekend. Especially on Sunday. I had wanted to go to the Hash but changed my mind. I didn't get a whole lot done on Saturday after I picked up BS. I did go see the Harry Potter movie with some friends in the evening, but that was pretty much it.

Bleah.. It's Monday!

BS Update #4

I swung by the vet clinic on the way home to visit the poor boy. He was hunkered down under a towel they had put in there for him. He was such a sad sight. He let out this small little meows. I'm sure he wants to go home. He kept rubbing his head against my hand and everything around him. He seemed perked up after I got there. I think I spent about a half hour with him. It was sad to leave him there, but I'll be back there tomorrow morning to get him. Hopefully the re-test for creatin and urea will come back okay.

BS Update #3

So I gave the vet clinic a call to see how BS was doing. He seems to be doing much better. He ate all the food they gave him. His temperature did drop a bit overnight so they've got him in an incubator. For this I'm not too surprised because even at home he's always looking for that warm spot, whether it be in a sunny window, on the heater, cuddled next to Jum or, lately, behind the MacPro. He's a very lean cat, so he's lacking in insulation.

I'm going to swing by the clinic after work to see him before I go home. He'll probably start meowing at him to take him home.

BS Update #2

Got a call from the vet about a half hour ago. They managed to get the IV into him without too much fuss. So this is good. They got the blood test results. For the most part I guess everything was okay except for a couple of abnormalities. These were associated with the urea levels and something else associated with the kidneys. The vet said it could be one of 2 things: 1) That there is a problem with the kidneys, or 2) because of the dehydration, the kidneys are giving this fale positive. So what the vet will do is test again on Saturday after BS is re-hydrated.

*sigh* Pets...

BS Update

I just got back from the vet. BS is pretty dehydrated so he'll be staying at the vet clinic while the re-hydrate him via IV fluids. They will also do some blood tests on him to make sure there's no underlying problems. It's hard to say what's bothering him. According to the vet, the diarrhea could just be a secondary issue.

In any case, depending on how much they have to do, it's possible they can have the test results tonight. Otherwise, it will be tomorrow.

I hope it's nothing too serious. He was fine up until this week. And whatever it is, I do hope it was caught early enough. If anything I'm sure he will need to get his teeth cleaned at some point. They're pretty nasty and his cat breath is quite stinky! :-p

Why do things happen?

Okay, so like I'm suppose to have a dinner date tonight. However, last night Blue Shit (above) made it known that he was having output issues. I had also noticed that he seemed a bit thinner than usual. Also, I noticed that his output seemed more like pancake batter than logs. Okay, enough with the graphical description.

In any case, BS wanted more attention than usual. When he wasn't trying to secure a spot on my lap he was meowing all over the place. I knew that something was definitely wrong when he tried to do a number on the bed. Alright, I think I call to the vet in the AM is in order. I had also tried to feed him some cooked rice mixed with canned food. However, that got regurgitated 6 hrs later at about 2:30AM. Since I awoke to the melodious sounds of a horking cat, I just had to see what was up. I didn't get back to bed until about 3:30AM. And even then, I wasn't able to sleep too soundly.

Needless to say I was quite tired this morning as I was operating on less than 5 hrs sleep. I called the vet this morning and got an appt for 4:30PM. It will be a fun trip to the vet. The last time BS was transported anywhere he was meowing himself hoarse the entire time. Oh yay! I guess I'll just crank up Hospital Music in the car.

The Weekend That Was

Well, the photo meetup that was scheduled for Saturday was cancelled. One of the girls in the group called to see if I was interested in still going anyway. I felt bad that I didn't get back to her. In the end I really didn't do much on Saturday. However, I did catch up on some cleaning and stuff. Let me tell you that some stuff was long overdue. *sigh* I'm not sure what to do with my ailing Roomba. It hasn't been very healthy since I left for Italy. I don't know what's causing it, but I've been without it for about 2 months now :(

Anyway.. If I don't want to sink any money into a new Roomba, or to even repair this one, I might need to invest in a good vacuum. The one I have now just isn't cutting it. I might check out the Sears website and see what they have to offer there. Aside from that I think I have been pretty good about spending as of late. I think the last thing I ordered online were a couple of cookbooks on healthier cooking and a CD.

This week for food, I found a recipe for a beef and pasta bake in one of the heart-healthy cookbooks. I made it last night. There's enough for an army! I guess that will be lunch and dinner for the rest of the week. I've also got fixings for salad, that that should work out. I picked up some plums and nectarines. I think yesterday's grocery bill came out to something like 70-80 bucks. Not bad, but I did buy like 2 pounds of extra lean ground beef. The organic celery was about $2.99. The grated parmesan was about $4.99. However, I think that when it comes to food, there are some things you don't really want to skimp too much on.

For this recipe, I was impressed with the low sodium count on it. I don't remember what the calorie count was, but using extra lean beef and part-skim mozzarella helps. For a bit of zing I tossed in some chili pepper flakes. No extra salt was added to the dish. I finished cooking it a bit late last night. After dishing out portions into plastic containers, there was just one portion left and no more containers. so I figure I might as well sample what I just made. And it was good. :)

This morning is rather dreary. Right now there are passing thundertorms. The skies are very dark. It almost seems like early evening, not morning! Bleah! :p

TGIF!

Another week has come and gone. This week, I think I've made some progress in how I've been feeling and stuff. Diet-wise, despite a couple of uhm, "bad" choices I think I did alright. The only issue is that I think I need to adjust to the portions. Today I had a serving of black beans and rice and a salad. I finished that off with a yogurt. A couple of hours later I was feeling hungry again. I did bring a chewy bar which I did eventually eat. I think around 3:30 I went down to the cafeteria and got myself a plain egg salad sandwich on whole wheat. That and the bar tied me over for a while.

Meanwhile, I nearly had a complete anxiety attack this afternoon just before leaving work. Why? I had a coffee date at 5:30. I was nearly freaking out! I tried to do some deep slow breathing. I think that sorta helped. In any case, at least I didn't fall over or anything from that. I managed to make it to the meeting place, albeit slightly late. But he was still there. He got me a coffee drink. We sat down and we just started to talk. We covered a variety of subjects. Before we knew it, it was already 8. We decided to go grab a bite to eat. We went over to a small sushi place. Ordered a 20 piece set. We continued to talk. I think we talked until they pretty much kicked us out. I think it was close to 10 by then. He walked me to the metro station, which I thought was nice. Chatted some more. He asked if I was interested in perhaps getting together again for dinner or something. I said sure. He already had my cell so I gave him my email. Then we parted.

Overall, I think it went well. He seems like a nice guy. So I guess we'll see how this goes.

Morning readings.

116/77 100 @05:22. I forgot to write that down this morning. And yes, for some bizarre reason I get up at a really gawdawful early in the morning. I probably should have slept in because I am REALLY tired this morning.

Happy Birthday to Me!

Today's horoscope for Earth Monkey:

Many natives of the sign will be more inclined to merry singlehood than to the constraints of couple life; nevertheless, consider the non negligible advantages which the support of a solid mate can bring you. You'll finally feel the desire to exist by yourself and for yourself; you'll no longer want to account for anyone; you'll also show yourself more authoritarian. You'll be under almost constant pressure; despite your efforts, you can't relax; your anguish will have something irrational.

It's kinda weird, but I think to some degree some of it is true. Usually, I don't put much credence into horoscoped, but I figure they'd be fun to read on occasion.

So today was not a bad day. I felt in general pretty good. The wooziness was not as bad. The muscle aches seem to be subsiding a little bit. I think some progress in adapting to this medication is being made.

After work today, we were supposed to go to Dieu du Ciel for a beer. However, the person who originally organized it could not get out of his conference until 6. So we figured, let's go out for dinner first then beer. Okay! So we made reservations at Maiko Sushi and I had my birthday dinner there. :) Afterwards, we went for a beer at Dieu du Ciel. The guys were sweet. They bought me dinner and the one beer I had for my birthday. :)

Anyway, I am really tired now. Need sleep.

Wooziness

I think I am starting to feel some of the effects of the new meds. Some of my muscles are a little bit achy. I feel slightly dizzy some times. A little bit of drowsiness. But other than that, I feel for the most part alright.

I'm going to give meditation a bit of a go. I'll start off with 15 minute sessions in the morning and in the evening. I might look into checking out the yoga class they have here at work. As well, since insurance covers it, I might look into massage therapy. I'm starting to believe that some underlying stress as well as some anxiety about this condition has been bugging me.

My BP this morning was 122/84. Not terribly bad, I guess. I didn't take it right after I woke up, so it might have been lower.

Meanwhile, I am trying to eat more heart and BP healthy. Last night, I made a batch of black beans and rice. It came out alright. The only salt was from the beans (canned) and the vegetable broth. I tried to rinse the beans as much as possible. As for the brother, I diluted it by substituting a portion of it with water.

This morning, I cycled into work. It's not a horrendously long ride, but I didn't try to over-exert myself either. I didn't feel any more tired than usual when I last rode. However, with the muscle aches, it did feel like I required more effort to pedal.

This is day 5 on the Indapamide.

Weekend Post-Mortem

One word: Blech!

That pretty much sums up my weekend.

I spent most of Saturday trying to relax and watched some TV. For most of the day I had a headache. I wasn't sure about taking some Tylenol, but by 3PM I really needed something. At some point after dinner, I started to feel the tension in my chest again. I figure I'd go to bed early and sleep off the headache. Nope, the chest pains persisted and the heart palpitations started up again. This time it just seemed worse that before. I think I went into a near panic.

I managed to get a hold of one friend who suggested I call Info-Sante first. The nurse I spoke with asked me to check my BP. It was 160/102. Yoiks! She suggested I get myself to the ER. So I called back my friend who said he could come by in about 20 minutes. While waiting I get a call back from another friend I had left a voicemail with. While talking to him, friend A called back to say he would be an hour instead. So I spoke with friend B who agreed to take me to the ER.

I got to the ER around midnight, I think. I got registered. I waited maybe 15 minutes before going through triage. Then it was maybe another 15-30 minutes before I got called into an exam room. But I waited in the exam room for at least 30-45 minutes before the doctor came in. The blood workup yielded nothing unusual. The ECG done during triage indicated nothing unusual. He did a standard examination. He suggested I stick around for another test and possible chest x-ray. Oh yay!

Anyway, a little after 2AM, I told my friend he should go home and get some sleep. I'd give him a ring when I was done.

So they got me a bed in the ER. I tried to get some sleep, but there was stuff going on all the time. I would hear one patient groaning somewhere. She sounded very elderly. The nurse came by to check my BP. At some point another ECG was done. Then I had a chest x-ray done. I had more blood taken again for another test. In the end, none of the tests indicated anything was wrong. Last BP check gave 140/84. Huge difference! I was released as there was nothing physically wrong. The nurse (she was really nice) asked if I was under any stress. I said not more than usual. However, I think there are probably some underlying issues that are starting to rear its ugly head.

Anyway, by the time I got home it was nearly 8AM. I was really tired. I tried to get some sleep, but it was difficult. I finally got out of bed around 1:30PM. I managed to go get some groceries. I still had a slight headache though. I finally called it quits around 8:30PM and went to bed. I read a bit more Harry Potter before turning off the lights. I slept pretty much straight through until my alarm went off.

Saturday night's events kinda poked me hard in the ribs to figure out what's bothering me. For sure I need to perhaps start by meditating and relaxing. Someone had suggested the audiobook The Joy of Meditating. I downloaded from iTunes and gave it a listen yesterday afternoon. It seemed to help somewhat. Just focusing on the voice and what the reader was saying. I listened to it again this morning. It's still too soon to say how well it will work, but we'll see.

Today, I still feel a little tired, but the headache is pretty much gone. I think I am still tired from being up all night Saturday. My BP when I got up was 102/84. BIG difference. So we'll see how things go.

New meds

Okay, so today is day one with Indapamide. It's a diuretic. So for most of this morning, I had to get up and go to the bathroom quite often. Apparently, the frequency will subside after a while.

I think this stull will take a bit longer to produce results versus the Avapro. Whereas you saw results almost immediately with Avapro, I think with this stuff, it could be a couple of weeks. In the meantime, I need to work on my diet and exercise.

I've done some digging around with the help of Google and found tons of information on food and nutrition related to hypertension. I've also checked Amazon to see what cookbooks were available specifically for low-sodium or heart healthy cooking.

Anyway, I can see that my BP has started to creep up since I'm not on Avapro today.

I *REALLY* need to stop thinking and worrying so much and try to relax. Of course this is always easier said than done! :p

Just had to...

I just had to share this... It's just too funny. :-)

Day Nine

I ended up going to sleep a bit later than intended. This was due primarily to how I was feeling again last night. I knew I was tired and sleepy and I really want to go to bed early and sleep. I went to bed at around 10 and tried to sleep. But Sleep would not come. That evening I was feeling my heart pounding again. Plus, there was a hint of anxiety again. These feelings were really starting to cheese me off!

Anyhow, I did manage to fall asleep at some point after 1AM. :-p My alarm still woke me up at 5AM but I don't think I crawled out of bed until about 5:45. Still...

My heart was still pounding a bit this morning. There was still some anxiety. My arms felt shaky for some reason too. In fact, I think I've experienced some shakiness since I started taking this shit. Blech :-p Enough was enough.

I managed to get some work done today, but the way I was feeling made it hard to concentrate on what I was doing. It was starting to affect my nerves a little.

After work, I went to the clinic. I waited about 90 minutes before I finally saw the doc. I told him how I was feeling. He checked my BP which was 127/98. The 98 is not good. It indicates that I would definitely need medication to bring it under control. With my home BP monitor I should see 110/70 as a good BP to have. So the doc wrote down a list of things I should do or not do. He wrote a prescription for a different type of medication and that I should discontinue the Avapro. So tomorrow morning I will start on Indapamide, which is a diuretic.

*sigh*

Strange Package

Okay, so it's day seven. For the most part I feel alright, but I seem to be extra drowsy this week. It might be due to something that regularly occurs. Ok, nuff said on that subject.

I had a very unproductive day today because I brought my laptop in to the help desk to get the HD changed. The original one kept telling me that failure was imminent. Right.

Recently, I placed an order with Amazon UK for the DVD box set of Ghost In The Shell 2nd Gig. It seems the box set was only available there. I couldn't find it other than as individual DVDs at either Amazon US or Canada. Anyway.. So I opened the package. The box set was there along with the invoice. However, along with the DVDs was this:

Really, really strange. I could feel that there was something inside the package. I didn't want to open it, so I held it up against the light.

I'm not sure if you can make it out in the picture, but it seems that there is a cross in the little packet. How odd! In any case, I think what I will do with it is to slap some local postage on it and send it off. Let the mystery remain. Someone suggested that maybe I stick it in another envelope and send it off with a note. I think I'd rather stay as anonymous as the person who stuck this in my package.

What do you think?

Day Six

So I sucked it up and went to the Hash yesterday. I think that was the wide decision. Even though we had to entire stop and go traffic that essentially doubled our drive time up, the weather was great and it was fun. :-)

The walkers had a choice of following the trail and taking an easier route along the street that goes around the lake. I opted for the easier walk. In the end it was still a good 1.5 hr walk out and back.

Today, being a Monday, something just had to happen at work. The HD on my laptop finally gave me the finger. It finally gave me the message saying that hard-drive failure imminent. I thought that was rather amusing actually. In any case, I gave the IT Helpdesk a call around 1PM to report the problem. They said it would be a relatively high severity since I cannot do any work. Two hours later, no call. So I called again. The guy this time said would put the call in again. About a half hour later, I get a call from another person saying they need the serial number. I said I gave it to the guy. The girl at the other end said it was short a digit. So I had to flip the laptop over again to give her the number. The guy who took down the S/N was a dumbass. :p In any case, the girl said someone will call in the morning to get the HD changed. Great.

Anyway, the saga of my laptop will continue. I know it will be a long week as I have to get some testing done by early next week. Yeah, this ought to do my blood pressure some real good! ;-)

Day Five

For some reason I feel slightly off this morning. I checked my BP and it seems OK although the pulse is slightly high at 93. But then again, it's been bouncing around between 76 and 96 when I've taken the measurement.

Tummy is feeling a little bit off this morning after breakfast. I don't know if it's due to one of the other side effects of the meds or my slight lactose intolerance. Anyway, it's not *THAT* bad.

So I'm wondering if I will be able to go up North today for the Hash, or if I should take it easy. I know it ought to be fun given that we have some really nice weather today. I've still got a couple of hours to think about it. I have to meet up with my ride by 11:30.

Yay!

I just got the book. Yay!!!

I just finished having some lunch. Just some dumplings. I'll probably head out shortly to the Canadian Tire to look for a clothes rack. Hopefully I won't come away with more junk.

Weekend Update

Today is day four of taking the medication. I think my body is still adjusting, but I think the more annyoing side effects may have passed. I don't feel as anxious. I think the heart rate is starting to regulate itself a bit more. Overall, almost normal. I still feel a bit odd at times, but nothing of great concern.

Meanwhile, I am waiting for my copy of the latest Harry Potter book to be delivered. I hope it arrives some time this morning.

I'll probably have to step out and look for a rack to dry clothes on. Until I get the dryer duct checked out, I am not going to use the dryer. I don't need to have the dryer combust on me.

So far so good with the tire. I saw the nail again in the tire. It's pretty close to the wall of the tire. Anyway, no long trips with the car for now.

Dignified?

Humor

Found on the GC Forum:

Bill Gates’ son asks his father, “Dad, I'd like to try to have sex, what should I do?” Bill replies, “That's simple, son. Just take the biggest car from my garage, dress in the best suit you have and take the girl into the most exclusive restaurant in town. Rent a hansom cab in the evening and take her for a trip around the lake. Buy her the biggest bunch of flowers you can find. Finally rent the presidential suite at a ritzy hotel and she'll be yours. That’s all there is to it.”

His son is shocked, “But Dad! Where are the romantic walks, gazes, reading of poetry in the moonlight, flirting ... ?”

Bill scoffs, “Son, all that was invented by the Open Source community so that they can have sex for free.”

Day Three

So this is the 3rd day of taking this stuff. Today was not as bad as yesterday. I felt less anxious. The heart is still beating a bit hard at times but not as badly as yesterday. I do seem to have a few minor muscle aches, but nothing that lasts too terribly long. The stuff still makes me a bit more drowsy at times, but I can deal with that. I still get the occasional dull headache, but that's bearable. Other than that, nothing that seems too serious.

Today I went and got a small, portable, external hard drive. I needed one to back up my stuff on the laptop. There is a DVD burner at work, but the disks only hold 4GB. Plus, I think it's a pain to burn a disk each time I want to perform a backup. I figure with an 80GB HD, that should be more than sufficient to backup most data from the laptop. The laptop only has a 40GB HD. I had already cleaned out about 10GB worth of stuff I hadn't touched in ages. So we'll see how well this backup works.

In the meantime, I was a bit of a piggy this evening. I went by this Lebanese place to get some shish taouk for dinner. Originally, I was just going to get a shish taouk pita, but instead I got the shish taouk plate. A bit more food than originally planned, but it was good. I will have to make up for it this weekend, though. :p

Anxiety

Maybe it's just me and my nerves, but ever since this whole deal with my blood pressure, I've been feeling a bit more anxious at times. The meds seem to be doing it things, but I kinda freaked out a little last night when I felt a little tightening around my ribs. Maybe it's just the muscles, who knows. So today is day 2 on the meds. I haven't noticed too much in the way of any side effects. I do have a slight headache. I also feel more drowsy than usual. At times, I feel slightly more shaky.

I managed to ride my bike to work yesterday. Since it was also a relatively warm and muggy day, I tried not to over-exert myself. I managed alright. I am also trying very hard to make small adjustments to my diet. It will be tricky to remember not to eat certain things like chips, bacon and the like. Last night I heated up a Dr. Oetkers pizza. According to the box, one serving is 1/4 of the pizza. So that is what I ate, plus a salad. The rest, I bagged and threw into the fridge for another time. I *REALLY* have to keep an eye on portions too. I think I've gained about 5 pounds in the past month! I've just been an absolutely piggy lately! I don't know why. Maybe subconsciously I am comfort feeding. Who knows.

In any case, tickets for the Matthew Good show at Club Soda go on sale today at noon. At least that's what the newspaper says. So let's see how many tickets I can get.

Even more annoyed

I'm even more annoyed now because I got a msg on my answering machine yesterday from the clinic regarding the results of my bp monitoring. It seems that the doc wants to prescribe some medication for me. Oh, great.

So I went to the pharmacy to pick it up. It's Avapro and he's only prescribed 30 days worth of the stuff. I guess I need to take care of the diet and exercise part of all this. :p

Meanwhile, I have really got to remember NOT to drink coffee after 1PM. I had trouble sleeping last night. It could be a combination of the coffee and the anxiety of knowing I need to have medication for this condition.

It sucks getting old. :p

I am annoyed today.

Why?

Because I found that there is a nail embedded in the rear passenger-side tire. The tire hasn't gone flat yet. I have no idea how long the nail had been there. I'm going to leave it well enough along until I can get the car to the garage and have it looked at.

I am also annoyed at my dryer. For some reason it's not drying as efficiently as it should. I guess I kinda noticed that the towels did not dry very well last week, but didn't think of it until I did some laundry today. *grumble*

So what else will annoy me?

Things I would like to but can't afford at the moment.

Yeah... I need to pay down my credit card first. I think I went a little out of control in recent months..

So if anyone is feeling generous.. ;-)

- Nikon AF-S 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 G DX VR Zoom Lens
- Nikon Coolpix P5000 Digital Camera (to replace current P&S digital camera)
- 32"+ LCD or Plasma TV (I would still need to do some more research on this)

Well, I guess this is just a start to the wishlist.... I'm sure there's other stuff I'd like. I think the only reason I have been able to refrain from making such purchases (other than the credit limit) is I have been asking myself a lot of questions such as: Do I really need this? What about this, that and the other thing? You know, going through the reasoning process. Looking at the logic behind it all. And in the end, I usually end up not buying the item. Which is a good thing, really.

:-)

Mr. Butch Quote

"You got to be articulate every day and keep going on strong and straight and use your heart and all your might and all your weight and all your power. Do what you can, make it last for many hour, 'cause once you're dead, you're done, you don't come back.

Yeah."

There's a more complete article in today's Boston Globe about Mr. Butch.

R.I.P. Mr. Butch

It's kinda funny. Just a few weeks ago I was waxing nostalgic about the old days when I was still living in Boston. I was remembering some things like the old 'hood and characters like Mr. Butch. And strangely enough this happens.

Some have scorned him. Some have praised and admired him. From what I can tell, he lived his life on his own terms.

And so, life must go one... You'll be missed, Mr. Butch.

**********************

On a happier note, the Red Dress Run raised just over $1500 for the Make A Wish Foundation in memory of fellow hasher 10% Off who passed away last year.

Red Dress Weekend Recap

End of Week 27, Start of Week 28

So the weekend started off with me heading downtown to meet up with some of the hashers for a bite to eat and to check out the sights and sounds of the Jazz Festival. I think in all about 10 of us showed up. Only 6 of us stuck around the restaurant to eat. I really haven't gone out to eat much lately, so I was taken slightly aback at the the prices on the menu. In any case, I figure I'd stick with something "light" since I had a big lunch. I got a salad which came with this big, grilled piece of chicken breast. The salad was pretty good but it was just huge!

After eating, we made our way down to the outdoor venue for the Jazz Festival. A couple of the Hashers were already down there. We knew what stage they were at, so that's where we headed for. We didn't find them immediately, but we did enjoy the last few minutes of the act performing. I believe the performer was Ryan Shaw. Pretty good stuff! After his set was over and people started to disperse, we found our other cohorts. We chatted a bit and took a few pics. Some of them wanted to grab a beer. So we just hung out for a little while. Around 10:30PM, I wanted to head back since I wanted to get some sleep before the next day's Red Dress Run. However, on the way to the metro station I did stop by a souvenir kiosk. After perusing their wares, I came away with a t-shirt and a key chain. The damage wasn't that bad! :)

Saturday: Red Dress Run. I had a couple of errands to run in the morning. Then I headed off downtown. When I came out of the metro I noticed that they closed off one of the main streets. Also, on the way in I saw a few colorfully costumes people. Uh-oh! It's the Cari-Fete parade! D'oh! I suspect that some people will be late getting in because there would be some traffic. I had noticed that there was quite a bit of traffic on the inbound Decarie Expressway. With the parade, some of the streets will be closed off. In any case, I made my way to Hurley's. I was a little bit early, so I figure it might be a good idea to have a small bite to eat. So I ordered some fries and a half-pint of Harp.

Eventually, people started to show up but it was a bit after 1PM. I think by the time everyone who was going to show up showed up, it was almost 1PM. The bagpiper at least made it more or less on time. In any case, pics from this weekend can be seen on my flickr page (see right side).

Sunday: Hangover Hash. Well, I was pretty wiped from all the walking on Saturday. I think not long after my head hit the pillow that I was out like a light. I don't remember what time I got up, but I was still pretty tired. The weather outside was a bit wet, but the forecast was updated to say that there would be sunny breaks in the afternoon. Okay, I guess will go to the Hash today. So I hitched a ride with a couple of people to head out to Kirkland. It was going to be a live hare hash. That meant the hares were given a head start to lay the trail. Sinner Bad needed some help with some stuff and we were going to have a beer stop somewhere. So off we go to get some beer cups and look for the place for the beer stop.

After the beer stop it was pretty much a straight shot back to the starting point. Then it was the circle, beer, food and the pool!

Anyway, it was a pretty busy and tiring weekend. :)

My Simpson Character?

Not sure if this is an accurate portrayal of me in the Simpson world but...

Things that make me shake my head...

Yeah, I kinda started to peruse one of the sites again. Nothing has changed. I still seem to attract the odd deviant without even trying. This fellow is from Australia, so you can imagine what questions went through my head during and after (see below). So this is part of what transpired:

Him says: (11:00:43 PM)do you like being hugged
Me says: (11:00:58 PM)i guess? about as much as the next person
Him says: (11:01:00 PM)I bet you do
Him says: (11:01:21 PM)is that a qualified yes ?
Me says: (11:01:27 PM)I guess so
Him says: (11:01:38 PM)don't hold back then :P
Me says: (11:01:53 PM)but we've just met! ;-)
Him says: (11:01:57 PM)sure
Him says: (11:02:06 PM)I was not asking abt me
Him says: (11:02:19 PM)I was asking about
Him says: (11:02:41 PM)how much yuo like to be hugged
Him says: (11:03:03 PM)yt ?
Me says: (11:03:21 PM)sorry.. i had to shut down one of the computers
Him says: (11:03:27 PM)ok
Him says: (11:03:32 PM)over to you
Me says: (11:03:45 PM)oh well. I like getting the occasional hug
Me says: (11:04:00 PM)I don't any more or less than the next person
Him says: (11:04:07 PM)wow
Him says: (11:04:10 PM)ok
Him says: (11:04:20 PM)we are not going to work then
Him says: (11:04:31 PM)I am into hugs
Him says: (11:04:42 PM)in a big way

So.. if he's soooo into hugging then wtf did he want to try to hook up with someone half way around the world? Did he really thing I would go over there just for hugging? Maybe it's just me. I don't know. Anyway, I'm off to bed now.

Today being that day that it is in the US, there are bound to be other similar commentary. ;-)

Pearls Before Swine

Happy Independence Day, U.S.!

Okay, so as a gesture towards Indepedence Day, Dubya has decided to commute the sentence of "Scooter" Libby to about none. WTF? Paris gets forced to do her time and this guy who's committed nothing short of treason gets off just shy of a pardon?



The man in the Oval office has made a mockery of the American government and its people. And just who the heck is in charge over there? Anyway...

Today's Pearls Before Swine kinda hit home in some ways.

Slightly discombolutated

Something is off and I am not sure what it is. I've been feeling a little jittery the past week. I don't know if it's the coffee, the coffee with sugar, hormones, or all of the above. In any case, the throw more fuel to the fire, at my annual check up, my doc is a little concerned that my blood pressure is a bit on the high side. He wants to set me up with 24-hr BP monitoring. He also had me get an electrocardiogram done before I left. Oye! In any case, I need to call the clinic soon to set up the appointments.

Aside from that, I've noticed that my heart does seem to beat a bit more noticeably. It's hard to describe exactly. sometimes I wonder if I don't have some sort of mild anxiety. Anxiety from what? I don't know. Maybe subconsciously there's stuff going on in my head that's causing this.

Other than that, the weekend hasn't been too terrible. In fact, my weekend is not over yet! I have today off since yesterday was a holiday. But I've got stuff that I need to get done anyway. And I need to find a fscking red dress!!

Hospital Music

Absolutely intense!

Before it's official release on July 31, the long-awaited album is available as a continuous stream from Matthew Good's website.

What an awsome way to start the day.

And I want to wish Matthew Good a very happy 36th birthday! Hope he has an awesome even tonight in Vegas!

I *might* have a slight problem here...

These are just the most recently used ones... Except for the big one, that is...

Some random things...

Sometimes I come up with some strange quotes. They just sort of pop into my head. I wish I've written some of them down. However, today, I did come up with this one...

"Stalking is fun until someone gets hurt or slapped with a restraining order."

Or...

"maybe he has a stalker who's been stealing his clothes one article at a time and creating a shrine in his honor.."

For some bizarre reason, the word stalker kept popping up. Nothing serious. It's all good, clean fun. You can move along now, boys and girls.

So true!!!!

Gentrification

Lately, I’ve been chatting with a couple of people about the city I grew up in and the changes that have happened over the years. In a way it seems to go hand-in-hand with some of the stuff that Matt had written about Vancouver.

I grew up and went to school in Boston. And no, the “Bahston” accent never stuck on me. Anyway… Recently, my brother mentioned a few changes that have happened or will happen in some neighborhoods that use to have a particular charm or character, namely, Newbury St and Kenmore Square.

Newbury St., even when I was still living there, had always had it’s share of posh and swanky boutiques. However, as you headed further up Newbury St. (away from the Ritz-Carlton and Burberrys), you had some cool, funky small shops that sold some really interesting things. It was always nice to take a stroll up Newbury St. Newbury Comics was the place back in the day for your comics (of course) and for local music as well as other non-mainstream stuff. A lot has changed since then (we’re talking at least 10 years here). The posh shops have slowly inched their way up the street. The Tower Records at the corner of Mass Ave and Newbury gave way to a Virgin Records which will soon become a Best Buy. Newbury Comics is now a bigger retail player with multiple stores in the New England area.

Kenmore Square used to be a bit rundown back when I was still in Uni. But it had some character and some cool eateries that a lot of the area students used to go and hang out at. Sad to say, but over the years, the whole area seems to have undergone some gentrification. Gone is the Deli Haus, the Pizza Pad and the Capt. Nemos subs. Gone is the Rat. In its place is the posh Hotel Commonwealth which seems to be aimed towards visiting parents of kids attending the nearby university. What? Wasn’t the Howard Johnson’s across the way not good enough?

I guess one major trigger for this bit of nostalgia is wondering whatever became of Mr. Butch? Mr. Butch was a bit of a fixture in Kenmore Square. He never really bothered anyone. He just found a spot and played his guitar. As far as I can remember, he’s always been there. But with the changes in the area, he’s been driven out. It’s rather sad. He was one of those characters that gave Kenmore Square its character. But alas, it seems that it will be no more.

Quick one...

I've managed to abstain from that one site long enough that it's no longer in my URL history. Wow...

Okay, I will confess that I have been at a couple other sites, but they don't seem to frustrate me as much as this one. Don't ask me why.

Another week

.. Another dollar..

Well, I managed to get through the week. Shopping on Friday wasn't that bad. I forget what my friend Mel got but I think she was a bit more spontaneous about her purchases than I was. :D At least I didn't buy a bag this time!!! XD I came away with 3 tops and a skirt.

*GASP!* A skirt?

Yes, a skirt. It's a simple black skirt. Nothing fancy about it. Now when I'd where it, I'm not sure. But it's nice to have in case the occasion does arise when I would or should wear a skirt.

Today, I went off to Future Shop to get $20 back on a cordless phone I bought last week that's now on sale. Then I wandered around the store a bit. This is usually dangerous because I would eventually come across something and buy it. I ended up buying two games: Final Fantasy III for the DS and WTF for the PSP. *sigh*

I swung by Winners to see what they had. I bought 2 packs of socks (yay). The clothing didn't thrill me, which was probably a good thing!

After all that excitement, I got home, eventually had some lunch, surfed the net a bit and then decided it would be nice to take a nap. Oooh, how I needed that nap! I haven't napped in soooo long. I had to boot the cats off the couch first though. Their tough luck, it's my couch! ;-)

Anyway, just finished some dinner. I think I'll go for a walk and maybe get some Haagen Dazs for dessert. I deserve it after such a long, hard day! ;-)

I am really trying my best to curb my spending. I came close to ordering a new HD for my Mac. I got as far as putting the item in my shopping cart but I did not hit the checkout button. Do I really need another HD? Can I clean up some space on the current HD? This is what I have been doing whenever there's something that costs over $100 tempted in buying. So far it seems to be working.

It's probably been almost a week since I last logged into that damned website. I really can't remember the last time I logged in and I don't care. Of all the sites of its kinda that one seems to bother me the most. I don't know why. Whatever it is, I want to sort of leave it there on the side of the road for now.

Meanwhile, I am trying to re-focus on stuff that needs to be done, like my on-line course. I managed to complete at least a lesson or 2. As I mentioned, my goal is to finish everything by the end of the summer. It might seem ambitious, but I've got to aim for something! :-)

After I've managed to do that I think I might go back and work on my Japanese. I would also need to exercise some self-discipline here if I am to accomplish something here. I have Vol. 1 and 2 of Japanese for Busy People, so I should be set for a while.

What else would I like to do? I'd like to find time to actually sit down and read about how to use Aperture to its full potential. I think I can do alot with the application if I knew exactly how to do it.

Anyway, I have such big plans, don't I?

Projects for the Summer

Well, after not doing too much of anything today (okay, I did go out and buy cat food and some stuff to finish some outdoor wood furniture), I've decided on the following projects:

1) Sand and varnish 2 folding Adirondack chairs. They have been sitting in the garage for over a year now. I'd like to make them more useful. There's also a small cedar table my ex sanded last year that just needs a coat of varnish to protect.

2) Finish on-line courses. Since I got back from Italy, I've been slacking off a bit. I would like to try to complete the 3 remaining courses this summer for the Systems Administration certificate.

3) De-clutter and organize my home office. I've made some feeble attempts to sort of clean up, but I think I usually end up just moving things around. I need to get more aggressive about this.

4) Stop making un-neccessary purchases! Well, this isn't really a project, but I have got to curb my spending. I just priced a possible itinerary for Asia in November and it seems that I can get it for about $1666CAD. That's pretty good for multi-destinations!

5) Catch up on some movies-watching.

In any case, we'll see how far I get with some of these projects.

Welcome to the Internet.

Have fun navigating it. :)

Another week, another dollar

I don't know how I managed to get through the day, but I did it. It wasn't horrendously busy today, but I guess there were a few things I managed to accomplish.

One thing that I recently had issues with was my laptop at work just randomly rebooting. It had happened 3 times. It seems that it may be partly due to the fact that the laptop's 40GB HD had barely 2GB free! Uhm... So yesterday and today, I took some time to go through many directories and purged what was not needed.

I am such a packrat. I found that I had stuff sitting around for more than a few years. When was the last time I needed it? Is it still useful? No? DELETE. However, even after all that, I only freed up a gig. Then I went into the iTunes folder and killed off everything but the Matthew Good stuff. That freed up a few more gigs.

I tackled my archive folder in Outlook. I had at least 2 Personal Folders located on the HD. So I went into Outlook and purged mail folders that I did not need any more. Sadly, I had email folders older than a few years! This freed up quite a bit more space as some of the emails purged has huge attachments in some cases. Yay! I have approximately 12GB free now! Let's see if this is enough to make the laptop slightly more stable.

That's more or less my exciting day at work.

Meanwhile, the self-imposed ban on that website continues. I have not logged into that site at all today. Yay! Let the ban continue for a while longer...

So I managed to cycle in to work again today. Woohoo! That's twice this week! I don't know if I will cycle in tomorrow. I'll have to sleep on it.

Meanwhile, I think I will manage to avoid that dreaded site. I've got some things I need to do this evening and perusing that site is very, very low on the list. Then again, I did say I would not go to that site for a while. Ergo, I will not go to that site at all. :-)

Today, I took a training course that would certify me in CPR/AED. It was interesting and it did not take up all day. I was back at my desk by 2:00PM. But what the heck do I work on mid-afternoon? I hate coming back from a meeting or something like that. I find it difficult to start on anything new so late in the day. Oh well. I just caught up on some emails and the like. Then I left around 4:30 for home. :-)

Ugh. I'm a bit pooped.

Trying very hard not to...

Since my recent frustrations with a particular dating site, I have decided that I will not login to that site for a while. Let's see how long it lasts...

Tonight I really conscienciously tried not to go there. And I succeeded. Instead, I was trying to keep myself busy checking out other things. I am also trying, very feebily, to clean up the area around my desk and computer. It's very cluttered and I don't like it cluttered. I have a very hard time tossing out anything I don't need. I need to really buckle down and just start tossing stuff. I've seen a few of those organization shows to know that if I don't keep up with my clutter it will get out of control.

Meanwhile, I went to IKEA hoping to find a couple of chairs for the deck. Alas, it seems that a lot of their summer furniture has already sold out! I just couldn't believe it. I guess for now I will have to live with just the 2 folding adirondack chairs I have sitting in the garage. I'll have to see if I need to refinish them or if it can wait until next year. There is also the small cedar table in the garage to. It has been sanded last year. It just needs a coat of some sort of protection.

Anyway...

I sometimes hate having to come up with a title for my blog entries. I find that I will end up with something that's just a variation of what I might have already used in an earlier entry. At times like these, I just say "fuck it" and not put anything for a title.

That said, I figure I would continue on a slightly cynical and at times bitter angle today. Why is that? Oh, I suppose it's a combination of things. I don't know if I should go into great detail about them, but I guess I could say that some of these things involve work and men, but not necessarily at the same time.

Work
I have been trying to complete some testing since last week. While I was away on holiday, some HW was swapped. However, I don't think anyone did any testing of the new equipment. When I came back to work, I pretty much immediately had to start work on testing some software that was just delivered for testing. So I proceed to prepare the equipment and load software for testing.

I managed to get through the initial set of test cases with very few problems. Then, when it came to test calls, that's when the shit hit the fan. Calls worked one way, but not the other. Why? Thankfully, one of the guys was around to give me a hand with some troubleshooting. That was last Thursday. We are Wednesday. He managed to find something, but the fix he came up with is just a workaround. It wasn't guaranteed. As proof of that, this morning I tried to make a couple of test calls, but they failed. Something else is wrong. *sigh*

Men
Okay, so what is it with some men these days? Maybe it's just my take on it, but it seems that as men get older they seem to want to experiment more with certain things. Case in point: BDSM. TWICE, I have come across men who want to explore their submissive side. Now, how is it I managed to be so "lucky" to hit upon two men like this? They're both in their mid to late 30's. The first one wanted to dress up in a French maid outfit and have me boss him around. O.o The second one for now seems to just want to talk in a submissive manner but has not actually mentioned anything about an encounter. Needless to say, both have been blocked/banned on the IM. It makes me wonder if I have some sort of subliminal label on me that screams Dominatrix. I really don't know if I would look good in a leather catsuit. Mreow?
I just think that some of these guys are hitting some sort of mid-life and want to get some of this out of their system.

Aside from that, I had a nice chat with a couple of female friends at work. My one friend agrees with some of the views I have when it comes to trying to find a guy at our age. Men around our age seem to fall into one of two categories: a) if they were never married, then they would want to find someone (usually younger)they can start a family with, or b) if they were married then they want to find someone younger anyway. Lose-lose situation for us women in the 30's, for we are not nubile bambis in their 20's. :-p

So what's a mature gal to do to meet single men? Obviously, it's a big gamble to try the dating sites. Going to bars and clubs is out. Do you really want to meet the love of your life at a bar? Probably not. The suggestion made is to go out and take up new activities. *sigh* I guess. But what to do?

Anyway, while I mull over these so-called options, I've still got some work to do today. :-p

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?