Politics

When I'm sick, I really don't feel like doing much. Would you? So here I sit, perusing the web and checking out what's interesting, I came across this video on Tony Pierce's blog. I thought it was quite interesting.


As a result of some hype over this interview, Derrick Ashong filmed this as a follow-up. Rather impressive.

Just couldn't avoid it

I have a cold. :-p

It started with a little bit of sniffling yesterday. Then the string of sneezes started. For me, this usually meant the beginning of a cold. After I got home from work I started on the ColdFX regimen to fight the cold. I drank a crap load of water. I kept a box of tissues nearby. A bit before going to bed, I had a slight headache, so I took a Tylenol for that.

We'll see how this cold progresses this weekend. :p

Oh yeah.. Dry throat woke me up around 4. Cat saw that I was up and demanded to be fed. I'm going back to bed soon. :p

Helping

Not entirely sure how to interpret this one. However, it seems somewhat sad.

Tuesday - Frigid Temps

The wind chill yesterday was pretty bad. Today not as bad, but it was still pretty cold. I think we've been spoiled with the on again, off again mild temps. We're getting fairly normal winter weather right now. They're currently forecasting about 5cm of the white stuff overnight and another 5cm tomorrow. Yay?

Kinda quiet at work. Occasionally there's a few little things to work on, but not a heck of a whole lot. I hope things pick up a bit soon.

I need to get my workout back on track again. Tonight I plan on going to my cardio class again. I missed all last week due to the aforementioned "internal" issues. I think for the most part the issue has been rectified. Now I need to get back in shape. :-p

In less than 2 months I will be moving into a new home with a new mortgage. This should prove to be an interesting endeavor. It will be the first time in over 6 years that I will be living in and owning a house. Condo living is similar to apartment living in my opinion.

Anyway, I need to collect some boxes for packing.

Some days...

I just feel like I am falling apart or something. Maybe it has something to do with this thing called getting old. Well, I think it sucks! :p

I'm feeling a bit better after taking a dose of Immodium Thursday morning. Now I'm just waiting for things to "regulate" themselves. :-p

In 26 days I will be flying off to San Francisco. Yup. On March 6th, I am flying to San Francisco to hang out with a friend and catch Matthew Good perform at the Cafe du Nord. I've never been to SF, so this ought to be fun and interesting. I haven't decided what camera to bring with me. I might just bring both for the sake of convenience. I'll just bring my backpack and small carry-on sized luggage.

Aside from that I've decided to do some baking this weekend. I haven't done that in a long while and I felt a need to. Well, I did make a banana bread the other week, but that's easy stuff. I made some almond biscotti yesterday as I was making some pasta sauce. The almond biscotti could have been shaped and sliced better, but they still taste good. Today, I'll probably make some oatmeal cookies. I *might* make either chocolate chip cookies or the lemon poppyseed cake. Yum! I haven't made the cake in a long while. I might do that.

I guess that means I should get off my arse, go shower and head off to the supermarket for a few things. :p

Ugh!

I have no idea what caused it. I just wish it would go away!

Yesterday morning, after I got to work, I just wasn't feeling very well. My stomach felt very heavy and I was pretty tired. So at some point during the morning, I decided to go home. It was a good thing I did.

After I had kinda slept for a little bit, I was having to make frequent trips the bathroom. Ugh! I felt wretched. I have no idea if it was something I ate or if it was a bug that was causing this. Needless to say, I was not a happy camper. I did not much of anything other than drink water all day.

This morning, I felt well enough to go in to work and get some stuff done. Not 100% better, but it was better than yesterday. :p

I hope this Maalox helps. :p

Forgetting

I think I torture myself with XKCD at times. However, I feel that I can relate to some of the stuff he puts up. Geeky romantic.

Insert Witty Title Here

Friday was pretty boring. Work was kinda boring. Some people decided to work from home due to the impending snow storm yesterday. My team leader was one of them. I kinda figure he would do that anyway especially since it was a Friday. I managed to find a few things to do. I think I left work around 3:15PM in an attempt to bet traffic. I think it took me about 20 minutes to get home. That wasn't bad. At that time the ice pellets started. The rest of the evening I heard the sound of ice pellets being blown against my windows.

I watched the movie Once last night. It was actually a pretty good movie. It's done a little bit differently. The storyline is not too heavy or overly complicated. I didn't realize until a read a little bit about the movie is that the lead actor is from the Irish group The Frames. Some of the music in the movie is quite nice. I would recommend this movie if you like good music.

Lately, I've been listening to some Damien Rice. I also recently discovered Ani DiFranco. Although I have seen her name in passing a number of times, I never got around to actually listening to her stuff. It's not bad really. I've also recently been listening to Imogen Heap and some Metric.

Today, nothing too heavy. I braved the snowy terrain and went to my cardio workout. The conditions were granular snow with an icy base. Because of the snow, it made for a more strenuous workout. I had to slow down a bit towards the end. Otherwise, I guess I'm happy I made it out there.

A sort of lazy afternoon. I tried to work on my online course. I think I need to read up on some stuff before I attempt the exercise and quiz.

Thursday

I ended up sleeping with my iPod on. I slept with the earbuds in my ears. Surprisingly I did manage to fall asleep towards the end of the Snow Patrol album. At some point during the night I woke up listening to some Damien Rice. Since it was only 3:30AM, I went back to sleep. Since the winds had died down at that point, I took the earbuds out.

What is this world coming to? In the past 24 hours, there have been reports of some child deaths or abandonment. The saddest was the case of two little girls in a First Nations community in Saskatchewan. It's huge tragedy for a small community.

Next there is the case of an 8-month old left in a cold stairwell of a shopping plaza near Toronto. From the description given of the child, the poor thing might have been beaten and left to die in the cold. Thankfully, some passersby heard her cries and got help.

There was also the case of 2 kids left in the car seats for over an hour in Calgary. The region is currently suffering from severe cold and windchill. The mother came back to the vehicle after having taken a 3rd child to the doctors. I mean, WTF? Why did she leave the other 2 kids in the car, unattended, in extremely cold weather?

I don't think it's unusual to hear about stuff like this during the winter months. What I find unusual is how many stories just popped up in such a short time span. The weather across the country in recent days has been pretty bad. An ice storm has knocked power out to half of PEI. The weather front that swept through this region brought high winds and plummeting temperatures. We're expecting almost a foot of snow tomorrow. :-p

Is Spring here yet?

It's 4:53AM

I think I have a few hangups and anxieties I need to address at some point. One of these is that I have as of late developed a dislike for very windy weather. I have no idea where the anxiety over this kind of weather developed. It's never really bothered me much before. Take yesterday for example. Almost as soon as I have found out that the weather today will involved wind gusts of up to 80 kph, I started to feel anxious. Of course this feeling of anxiety does not help my blood pressure. I had to consciously breathe deeply to try to calm my racing heart. I did a quick check of my BP yesterday before I took a very short nap before going to my cardio workout. I was sitting around 126/80. Not terribly high.

Anyway...

Recently, there's been some drama in the area. One of the guys I know at work who lives in the neighborhood with his wife attempted to take his own life by downing a handful of pills. Now, there's a bit more to this than a suicide attempt. Apparently, things have been building up in recent months (maybe in the past year even). I know that hes been hinting at divorce for a while. Why he hadn't gone through with it, I don't know. I think there are also some factors involved in this whole episode that might have led to this as well. Bottom line, things just came to a head and got ugly late Friday night/early Saturday morning.

Apparently, there had been times when he got pretty violent and punched holes in the walls of the apartment. He even broke an ironing board in half and used a piece of the metal to try to hurt himself. More recently, he killed their pet turtle and said something to his wife to the effect that she was next.

So after he took the pills, his wife called 911. He was taken to the hospital. I think the police stayed with her for a while. The police car was still in front of their building when I went to my cardio class Saturday morning. I spoke to a friend who's friends with the wife and had been in touch with her. The wife will be staying with friends. A restraining order has been issued against the husband. When the husband is discharged from the hospital, he will be charged with domestic assault.

So why am I writing all this? I just want to get it off my chest I guess. I don't think anyone from work knows I have this blog. If they did, they'd think I was a major head case for some of the things I've babbled on about. I guess another reason I wanted to write this is to also point out the fact that the husband is not a big brute. On the contrary. He's about my height and size. He's not a big guy at all. Some might even consider him slight. I guess this is to dis-spell any image that violent men tend to be these big, ugly ape of a man.

A factor that I think is involved in all this is the fact that the husband's family never took to his wife. He's of Ukrainian descent. She's Mexican. His late father mistreated her one time by grabbing both her arms and shaking her. He left bruises on her arms. The husband does not show any backbone. Why didn't he defend his wife? Since his father's death last year, I think his mother may have been harping on him still about his wife. I believe that this is part of what's been building up.

Anyway, it does leave me with some questions as to why he did what he did to end up in this situation...

I think I'll go shower now and get an early start to the day.

It's now 5:13AM.

Vancouver Blog Wars

Now, some of you know I frequent Matthew Good's website. As a result, you get to know about certain people of that world and that community. One of these people is Duane Storey. He's a rather unassuming fellow, but I find him interesting nonetheless. Interesting enough that I check out his blog from time to time. For a bit more explanation about the Blog Wars, kindly head over to his site (link over on the right there).

Thursday

Yeah, so I was feeling a bit down last night. I find that I've been getting this way everyone once in a while. It never lasts for more than a day or so. I suspect that I tend to get this way when I start to think about certain things. There's no real logic behind it all. Anyway...

Monday evening, it looks like I've finally sold my condo. It was rather interesting in how it all transpired. Let's see if I can summarize this simply.

• Visit by prospective buyer A last Wednesday.
• Offer made by buyer A on Friday but with condition of 2nd visit with father.
• Delay in answering offer until after 2nd visit scheduled for Sunday.
• Counter-offer made Sunday soon after 2nd visit.
• Delay in answering counter-offer until buyer A discussed it with parents.
• Counter to counter-offer made Monday mid-day. Will wait until after work to accept counter.
  
• Hour or so later, call from agent that there is another client interested in property. Very motivied.
• Visit by buyer B. Does the usual tour. Talks with agent. Discussed with wife.
• Offer made by buyer B for more than the counter-offer from buyer A.
• Offer by buyer B accepted. Mortgage approval pending.

So there you have it. I tried to summarize the whole thing as best as possible. Now i have a shopping list of documents and things to do that my agent emailed me. I've managed to locate most of the documents. I still need to get one document from the surveyor which I have to pay for. It seems that when I bought my place they were too lazy to order a certified copy of the certificate of location from the surveyor. Oh well. :-p

Tuesday, I was a bit tired. I was probably still a bit excited over the fact that my place finally sold. In any case, having a cat that wakes you up around 4:45AM does not help either. I will have to either start going to be earlier or try to sleep in more on weekends to catch up. Either way, I think the cloudy days do not help matters much either.

Yesterday was a bit better until I started to feel down in the evening. I had made a crockpot full of chili last night. It was quite tasty. I could have given it a bit more kick if I had remembered to get a small tin of jalapeno peppers. No matter. It was fine the way it was. So now I have lunch and dinner for the next couple of days.

Something that has been getting to me is the fact that I have started to spend a bit more time on Second Life. One thing that I keep reminding myself is to not to let something like SL take over all of my spare time. There are still things that I would like to get done. I have to constantly remind myself that I need to do this or that. So far it hasn't gotten to the point of total addiction or obsession. At least not yet. I hope someone out there who knows me can occasionally keep an eye out. :)

The weekend is quickly approaching. Chinese new year is coming up soon. I'm contemplating making something, but I would definitely need to plan it out a bit. Maybe I'll go to the Hash this Sunday. I haven't gone since the one before New Year's. We'll see.

Some days...

I just feel a bit bummed out. For whatever reason I find myself in a bit of a funk. I guess i'll just head off to bed and sleep it off.

Oooooh! That's purdy!

This is purdy. I'd like one. But I've already got a regular iPod and an iPod nano. Oh well.

Sibel Edwards

Copied from matthewgood.org:

Sibel Edmonds: Kill The Messenger

Click here to watch the documentary “Kill The Messenger” about the Sibel Edmonds affair. I highly recommend that you find some time today, or over the next few days, to watch this crucial film. The information provided in it is extremely important, so if you have a blog, or an email list that you use to send group emails to friends, please help spread the link.

More on the documentary here.

M.L.K.

Yesterday was Martin Luther King Day in the States. Matthew Good posted this on this site.

Accidental Cougar

I came across this article today. I thought it was interesting...

To Be Wanted

Saturday

Well, I was presented with an offer by the client who visited Wednesday evening. However, she wants a second visit with her Dad. My agent, wanting to avoid the same scenario as last weekend (and I don't blame her), suggested that we respond to the offer only after they've had their 2nd visit. So the girl will be visiting again Sunday afternoon with her Dad. I hope it turns out well.

Meanwhile, I started up the outdoor cardio workouts again. Tuesday was the first class. It wasn't too bad. However, a day or two later I started to feel it in my abs. I guess I just haven't been doing any crunches in a while. :-p But all in all it was a good workout.

Wednesday, before the visit that evening, I went for a massage. This was the first time that I have ever had a massage. The clinic that I go to for my annual physical and now my physiotherapy for my elbow has a massage-therapist. I figure, why not? So I made the appointment last week. It wasn't bad at all. I knew there'd be some knots in my back. She found them and really worked on them. Ouch! She warned me that I might feel a little sore the next day or two. I think I might go back for another session in a few weeks.

Today, I didn't do too much. I went to the morning cardio class. It was a good workout. It also showed how out of shape I was after just 2.5 months of not working out. I think my heart rate was hitting 170. I tried to pace myself, that's for sure. I think I was starting to lose some steam towards the end. It felt good though.

On the way home from cardio, I stopped by Future Shop to check out some CDs. I was looking for something in particular, but I really should have known better than to expect FS to carry it. In any case, they had some CDs that were marked 3 fo $25. I found 3 that looked interesting and got those. Afterwards, I went over to Bureau en Gros to get calendar refills for my Dayrunner. Yes. I know. It's almost the end of the month. :-p

Anyway, I'm going to make some miso soup with udon noodles tonight. :-)

Catch up

Okay. This will be my Clif Notes version of the week that was.

Saturday-Sunday: Had a total of 4 visits to the place.
Monday: Quiet
Tuesday: Visit scheduled but client was late.
Wednesday: One visit
Thursday: One Visit
Friday: Offer made by woman who visited Saturday. Counter-offer was made and sent to agent next morning.
Saturday: One visit. The agent tried to get some info out of me about the offer. My counter-offer was countered.
Sunday: Counter to the counter was made and delivered. Buyer requested another visit. After visit, the counter was refused. Why? Because she didn't think her bedroom set would fit. O.o

When she came over to look at the place again she seemed to be fixated on her bedroom set and whether it would fit in either the smaller bedroom or the mezzanine. She had a female relative with her who kept giving her alternatives to doing things. In the end, when my agent called her agent to find out what was happening, she decided not to buy because she didn't think her bedroom set would fit. My agent said that she was not a serious buyer and that she wasted our time with all the negotiations. In her 20 plus years in the real estate business she's never seen this happen.

In any case, I had a visit Tuesday evening and last night. I have another one this evening. The couple from last night seem very interested and might make an appt to come over the weekend with her Dad. I remember they were talking about the possibility of putting up a wall on the mezzanine to make a more closed off bedroom area. Anyway, we'll see!

I have another visit tonight...

Yeah, I suck. :-p

I haven't made an entry since last week. I think quite a bit has been happening as of late. I will try to make a more significant update here later today. Maybe.

Resolutions Redux

I suck at keeping resolutions. :-p

I finally pulled myself away from the glowing monitor at about 11PM last night. I was having a pleasant conversation with someone from the matthewgood.org community. Ultimately, I really did not get too much of anything else done. *sigh*

Let's see if I can get it right tonight this time. :p

Resolutions (con't)

3) I resolve to complete my O'Reilly Online courses. I managed to complete 1 of 4 courses. I am about 78% done with 2nd one. I haven't quite figured out why kinda let it slide. :p

In general, I think I suck at keeping resolutions. Last night, instead of getting away from this damn computer at 8, I stayed on until a bit after 10. Well, okay, so I was busy uploading some holiday pics to Flickr. Still...

:-p

And, it's just friggin' COLD out there today!!!

Resolutions

Since some people I know have decided to publish their resolutions for this year, I've given it some further thought as to what resolutions I should make myself. Normally, I don't make resolutions. This time around, I think I need to in order to get some things under control in my life.

1) I will resolve to limit my time in front of the computer at home in the evenings. As I am not planning on taking a course this winter term, there's no real productive need to sit in front of this damn thing from the time I get home until it's time for bed. Yes, folks. This is the sad life I lead some days. Therefore, I have decided that unless I do have something I need to do, I will limit my internet social time to 8PM.

2) I will resolve to read more. I have a number of books I have picked up in the past year and have not gotten around to reading. There are a couple that I have started and have not finished. I used to love to read and I feel that I should get back into reading more. I have a number of books both fiction and non-fiction just waiting to have their spines cracked open.

-- To be continued if I can think of any other resolutions I feel I should make...

Someone was bored...

Someone stomped out DUBS in the snow...

New Year's Day

Well, after being awoken by a certain feline at 5AM demanding to be fed, I went back to bed and didn't get up again until about 11AM. Ooof! Boy! Did I sleep in this time! I think I might have slept too much. I still feel a bit tired. :p

Another year has come and gone. Now is the start of another year. Some people take this as an opportunity to start fresh. To start anew. At times I just see it as another date on the calendar. I guess New Year's Day is more symbolic than anything.

Today I woke up to the sight of more falling snow. The expected accumulation this time around will be 15-20 cm. Oh yay. Yesterday, I had thought about maybe going to a movie, but I really don't know if I'd want to drive through this. It's not that the theatre is that far, but I'm probably just being a bit lazy about it. That and the fact that I don't like the idea of going to a movie alone. It's rather depressing.


Last night I made this yummy udon noodle stir-fry. It's the first time I used fresh udon noodles for such a dish. I had a few things in the fridge to use in the dish as well as the greens I picked up when I bought the noodles. Yummy. This will be added to my repertoire of dishes.

Remember kids...

Responsible behavior this holiday season or this could happen to you!

Goodbye 2007, Hello 2008

I suppose I won't be the only one to write a blog entry on the last day of the year. I guess it's a question of what do people tend to write? I would think that a lot of people will create lists of what was good or bad for the year 2007. Some will probably write some retrospect of the year and what they look forward to in the new year. I guess it's really hard to come up with something more original for the last entry of the year.

I will say that again, this year, I will end it at home on my own. I don't think it's a huge deal. Sometimes it's better to spend some quiet time while others are whooping it up somewhere. I guess I just don't have the energy or motivation to whoop it up. That's not to say I'm depressed or anything. But I won't lie and say that I'm just all peaches and cream about the whole situation.

I have also become more aware about how selfish it is sometimes to think about yourself when there are others who are in worse situations than my own. Knowing this, I think it helps to lessen the impact of whatever I happen to be going through. I guess you could say it's a sort of philosophy I've slowly started to take up. That doesn't mean I will give up all my worldly possessions and go off to work in some third world country. I will, however, lend a hand or ear to those who need it most. I find that it's friends like this that are more valued than anything else. At least, this is what I believe.

Anyway, I think I will Wii my way into the New Year.

So to the handful of regular readers, I wish you all a Happy New Year. :-)

Holiday Blahs

I don't know what it is about this time of year. Is it because I'm spending it "alone" that I feel kinda "blah"? I just feel kind of bummed out today.

This past week seems to have gone by rather quickly...

Monday, I went into town (Boston) with my brother just to poke around. Incredibly we found on-street, metered parking. The traffic in was not bad at all.

I really didn't have anything I needed to buy. I did end up getting two CDs at Newbury Comics. I checked out a couple of clothing stores, but really didn't see anything that appealed to me. I guess I'm rather fussy about clothing. :p

Tuesday was Christmas. The carnage that was the opening of gifts started upstairs with all the gifts for the twins. I think they got way too many toys. I don't know how my sister deals with all of it. Then the carnage moved downstairs for the adults. My sister got the new iPod nano from me and bro. Bro got a USB turntable from sis and me. I got the Nintendo Wii from sis and bro. Parents got cash. Bro-in-law got some gift cards.

Wednesday was calmer. Bro and I went by the mall just to check out a couple of things plus find me a bag to carry the Wii back in. I didn't want to haul it back in its box. :p That would have been too obvious at Customs. Found one that I liked at the Best Buy. It was black with pink. Got home and chilled before it was time to head out to the airport.

I had MSN'd with a friend earlier and he mentioned that a bunch of them were going out for dinner that evening. He asked if I wanted to join. I figured, why not? While at the airport, he text the directions and tried to confirm attendance. I said I had a couple things to do once I got back. He offered to pick me up at the airport. I said, cool!

I got home, took care of a little "mess" that BS made on the bed and quickly freshened up before heading out to dinner. The restaurant is a Portuguese one out in the east end near St. Leonard. It was meat, meat and more meat, with some seafood thrown in for good measure.

After dinner, we went to Rockaberry for dessert. We had fun talking about some silly stuff. To cap it off, we went to Cafe Milano for a late evening latte. It was a pleasant evening spent with some friends.

Thursday, I didn't do too much. I had physio in the morning, so I had to get up for that. Did some quick grocery shopping afterwards. Threw a load of laundry in. Chilled the rest of the day before deciding to hook up the Wii. I think I played Wii Sports for about an hour that evening. It was fun. :-)

Yesterday, I wanted to head over to the mall. I was chatting with Abe when I mentioned it. He said he was stuck at home with no car. I offered to rescue him and go to the mall. I wanted to check out the Wii games at EB Games. I found a couple: Elebits and Super Mario Galaxy. Abe inquired into the price of the PS3. He called his brother to find out about some technical aspects of it. We walked around the mall some more. I picked up 2 DVDs at HMV. I found a baselayer at Sports Expert. Then Abe decided to go back to EB Games. He ended up buying the 40Gb PS3. Sucka!!! ;-)

Last night, there was a potluck dinner at a couple's place. They don't live too far from me. I decided to keep it simple and get some cheese and crackers. It ended up being 6 of us in all. Not bad. There was enough food for everyone. I told Yan I needed to give her some cooking lessons. After we had some food and talked for a bit, we all played some poker. I've never really played poker before so we played a couple of "dry runs". After that, the real game began. No money was involved, so it was all good. In the end, of the 6 of us, I finished 3rd, which really wasn't bad.

Today, I woke up after 4 hours of sleep. I feel a bit blah. :p I think I'm going out for some sushi tonight with Abe. Maybe a movie later. I dunno...

Bah-ston

No, I don't really have a Boston accent. Occasionally, I might slip and pronounce a few words in a certain way. My sister has more the accent than I do.

Yeah, so I am back in Boston for Christmas. I flew in yesterday. I think I spent more time on the tarmac or taxiing on the runway than I did in the air. The flight itself was about 45 minutes. Before we pulled away from the gate, they had to pretty much shut down the plane to reset the system because something was a bit wonky. Then it was taxiing, taxiing, taxiing around before we got to the runway we were to take off from. Once we landed at Logan it was more taxiing. :p Sooo.. Instead of getting to the gate by 8PM, we got there around 8:30.

Today, I didn't do tooooo much. The family plus my aunt and cousins went out for dimsum for lunch. It wasn't too bad. Of course, just having returned from Hong Kong not too long ago, my Mom was making comparisons. Oh well. I guess my Mom just has to have something to complain about. In general, the dim sum at this place in Saugus on Route 1 is not bad. I really can't remember the name of the place. It's where Weylu's used to be many years ago on top of a hill.

After dim sum, Mom, bro and I went over to Square One Shopping center. Ack! I braced myself with last minute shoppers. Actually, it wasn't as bad as I thought. There was a line up for the kids to have their picture taken with Santa. Otherwise, the crowds weren't that bad. I went to Filene's Basement and found myself a Kenneth Cole down jacket. It was on sale for 25% the ticketed price. So I paid a grand total of $59.99. That's not bad! Then we strolled around a bit. Mom had gone off on her own and called my brother to tell him that she walked over to the Kmart. We continued to walk around a little bit more before we headed out to pick up Mom by the Kmart.

This evening, we went out to Not Your Average Joe's for dinner. Mom's birthday was Thursday, so we went out tonight to celebrate. I had their Thai Chicken and Shrimp. It wasn't bad. I also tried their Peanut Butter Thing for dessert. Oof! I think in the end, I just ate too much! :p I don't think I will be having much breakfast tomorrow.
_________________________________

Catching up.... Since Tuesday....

Okay, so there was a Vegas Night party at work on Wednesday. It was held at the Science Center by the Old Port. They had blackjack tables, poker tables, Roulette, craps and roving magicians. There was also a live band playing in a room not far from where the casino was. The food was pretty good. They were serving some yummy canapes before the buffet opened. There were many gifts to be won. Alas, I didn't win anything. Yet, I didn't lose anything either. We were all given tickets to exchange for $1500 worth of chips. I played some blackjack before it was time to go home. I had a good time, so I guess it was a good thing I decided to go.

The viewing of the condo by the couple who cancelled Tuesday had to cancel again because the poor woman who is pregnant was bleeding. Oh well. and it seems that the couple who did come to view the place are going to put an offer on the other condo instead. :p

Thursday was not too exciting. I had my first appointment with a physical therapist about my elbow. She did a full evaluation to make sure that there wasn't something else amiss. In the end, she confirmed that it was tennis elbow. :p She showed me a few exercises and stretches that I should do. Next appointment is on the 27th in the morning.

Friday, well.. I managed to finish what I needed to get done at work not long after lunch. After that it was a bit of slacking off. I shot the shit with some coworkers. There was a bottle of good port open, but I didn't have any. Apparently, there was a bottle of wine opened somewhere else. Another person mentioned that a manager had a whole bar set up in his office. Yes, it's more or less the last real working day before the holidays. Technically, Monday is still a work day, but I don't think too many people will be in. I'm in Boston, so obviously, I won't be in. :D

Oh! Today I did receive an email from the real estate agent. There might be a viewing either Thursday or Friday. She'll confirm the date and time as soon as she gets the info. I hope I have a chance to tidy up the place some more and maybe declutter a bit more. *sigh* I might have to do something about the cats as well. I dunno what, but... I guess we'll see.

Tomorrow, my brother will only be working until noon. We're planing on heading into town for a bit. We'll probably get off by Back Bay Station. I like hanging out in the area by the Pru and Newbury St. Let's see what kind of trouble I will find there. :p

I'm Exhausted!

I've been working almost non-stop prepping my place for its first viewing. The agent just came by to pick up a set of keys for any weekday visits. Her client that was originally suppose to come by Sunday but was postponed to tonight due to the snow storm had to cancel tonight because she thinks she's about to have her baby. However! The second visit scheduled for tonight is still on and will probably be moved up to 8PM.

*GASP* *PANT* I'm tired! My shoulders and muscles are a bit sore from hauling stuff, carrying stuff, packing stuff most of the weekend.

I'm taking a bit of a breather right now before I do some more picking up. The potential buyer coming tonight is the niece of another agent. I think she just got married so they want a place of their own. My agent will try to convince and push the other agent into making a serious offer on my place. It's in their price range. So we shall see.

If I have any energy left I'll post an update later.

Meanwhile, the place I'm buying was inspected this afternoon. No major problems there. Just a few small things. The guy has inspected many similar townhouses in the area so he's familiar with the construction. Anyway...

*BREATHE*

Uhm..

I'm not sure what to say...

Do chocolate bunnies and disturbing mix?

Trip Photos

Oh! In case you haven't heard, the gazillion shots I took on the trip are up on my Flickr. I managed to edit it down to about 550 shots. :D

Monday Evening

I am very tired. I guess I am somewhat exhausted. The other night while I was having some late supper, my eyes started to close on me. I think my body just wanted to shut down.

I guess I've been tying to do so much this past weekend that I have not given myself sufficient downtime to recover. Since there was this snow storm on Sunday and the viewing postponed to Tuesday, I ended up napping all afternoon. I think I really needed it.

The place is just about ready for viewing. I think I've done all I can for the backroom at this time. I need to put away a few things before tomorrow evening. I've already taken out some of the garbage. I'll probably have to put away the boxes for packing in the garage. I managed to do some mopping tonight. I'll probably run the vacuum over the rugs tomorrow.

*SIGH* So much to do to show the place and impress people.

Okay, I'm pretty tired so I think I will go to bed now.

Friday - Update

I must apologize for not having written sooner. It's just been one rather busy week. Busy in the sense that I just didn't have a chance to sit down and write an entry here. So where to start?

I guess I will start where I left off, more or less.

Tuesday: I don't really remember much about Tuesday. I did send an email to a real estate agent about selling my place and making an offer on another. She emailed back and said that we'd meet Wednesday evening. In the afternoon, there was a beer and pizza thing for the department. That was dinner for the day!

Wednesday: Today, we had our group outing. We decided to go curling again this year. Since I had volunteered to be designated driver for 2 of the guys who live near me, we left directly from my place to the curling rink. We curled for 2 hours before making our way to Portovino for the department holiday lunch. As it's happened at past holiday lunches, there were the odd dozen of us who stick around to the bitter end. This year, I think we started to leave around 6:30PM. We all made sure that everything was able to get home one way or another. One of my charges was quite out of it, but we managed to get him into my car and safely home.

That evening, I had my meeting with the agent. We first did the paperwork to list my place for sale. As for the asking price, we agreed that if I wanted it to sell fairly quickly, I should price it close to what similar condos have sold recently. In essence, mine will be priced below most of the other mezzanine condos. Then we wrote up the offer on the townhouse. After doing some thinking, I had decided to go for my ex manager's townhouse instead of the one that required a lot of work. Do I really want the headache of renovation?? Anyway, we discussed price. The agent suggested a starting figure to which I agreed. So the offer was written up. Considering it was getting late in the evening, she'd present the offer the next day.

Thursday: The offer was made and countered. I came home to find the for sale sign on front of the building. Whoah. Things are moving along pretty quickly. The agent came by after work to go over the counter offer. We discussed it. I think it was a fair counter-offer. I toyed with the idea of countering it with something silly, but I decided against it. :) The agent had also mentioned in the email she sent in the afternoon that she's scheduled a viewing for Sunday at 1PM! Apparently a couple was interested in checking out one of her listings. She told them about my place. So now they will get to see my place before the other one! :-o They seem pretty serious about wanting to buy a condo. So I hope all the de-cluttering and stuff will help sway them to make an offer. :)

Right now, my place is a bit of a disaster. Today, I also had to call about the certificate of location. I need to make an appointment for a home inspection. I also needed to get mortgage approval for the house. *sigh* I'm feeling a bit wiped. :p

Save our environment!

I received this from Avaaz.org:

Right now, a major UN summit in Bali has just a few days left to hammer out an agreement on stopping catastrophic climate change. But instead of helping out, Canada is actually sabotaging the UN talks! On Saturday, experts gave us the global "fossil" award for being the worst country in the world on climate change.

There's still a few days left to save Canada's reputation -- and the climate -- but we need a massive democratic roar to remind our Prime Minister what Canada is all about, and stop him from blocking the world at Bali. Click below to sign the petition and we'll advertize the number of signatures we get in an ad campaign across Canada this week. Our goal is to get 25,000 people to sign in just 3 days before the ads run. Click below, then forward this email to all your friends and family right away:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/another_canadian_climate_crime/4.php

Enough is enough. Prime Minister Harper's short-sighted, undemocratic and big oil-driven policy on climate change is damaging the world and destroying our image as a good country. We're supposed to be the nice guys, who try to do the right thing in the world.

The vast majority of Canadians are hopping mad on this issue -- we can win this. We just need to show Harper how serious we are that he change course. Sign up now and forward this email to everyone you know - we've got just 3 days to hit 25,000 signatures!

Do your part and sign the petition!

Schmap

This is kinda neat. It seems that a shot I took of Spouting Horn in Kauai got shortlisted for the next edition of Schmap Kauai Guide.

Home Again

Well, I've been back from my trip a couple of days now. It almost feels like I never left home. I don't know why that is. It's not necessarily a bad thing. It just feels a bit weird. I mean, just last week, I was in Tokyo planning my day trip to Nikko. I guess it's back to some sense of normalcy.

Something about this

It just gives me the warm fuzzies. *sigh*

Now I'm depressed. :p

Gate C85

I am such a keener. Or maybe I'm just a bit anal about stuff like this.

I got up at 4AM this morning to get read to head off to the airport. My flight is at 8:22AM. I got to the airport a little after 6AM. There was hardly a line-up for United. There was almost no line going through US Customs. I got to my gate before 7AM. And this is after making a stop to get plug adapters. I'm miffed I couldn't find the missing plugs for the adapter set I already had. So I ended spending $40 plus tax for another set. Bleah.

It's a sunny morning. There's a bit of a strong wind. I suspect the take off might be a little bit rough as a result. It's an Embraer jet, so I'm sure it will be slightly rough getting out.

Anyway, from this point on I will be updating my trip blog. Hopefully, I will be able to upload a few pictures there along the way. :-)

Sometimes it's a matter of principle

Since I got the Nikon P5000, I would like to sell the ol' Sony DSC-W1. It's a pretty decent camera. It's performed rather well for me. So I posted it on the forsale bulletin board at work. This is what I got. Names removed to protect the stupid.

______________________________________________
From: E
Sent: Tuesday, November 13, 2007 4:11 PM
To: F
Subject: RE: Sony DSC-W1 5.1MP Digital Camera

I'll bring it in, but there is a huge difference in the quality of the product. If you haven't already done so, I'd suggest you go check out that Kodak and handle it. Kodak has yet to produce a standout product. So you really can't compare.

BTW, you might want to refresh that page. It says there are 0 left of that model.

There's very little room to negotiate on the price. Sorry. And I'm not in any hurry to sell either.

_____________________________________________
From: F
Sent: Tuesday, November 13, 2007 3:50 PM
To: E
Subject: RE: Sony DSC-W1 5.1MP Digital Camera

Hi E,

Well then if you ask Future Shop, they will align their price, and it's still available on line at Best Buy as far as I can tell.
But it's not the point. I'm not in a hurry, and this is for my step sister, who's still a student… I'll have to ask. Any negotiation margin would be a must here.

Still, I'd like to have a look tomorrow if don't mind.
Best regards,

F
_____________________________________________
From: E
Sent: Tuesday, November 13, 2007 3:33 PM
To: F
Subject: RE: Sony DSC-W1 5.1MP Digital Camera

The Sony also has more manual options. Another reason it's heavier is because it has a sturdier body, not plastic.

If you do further research, the Kodak you referenced is considered a "budget" digital camera with fewer features than the Sony.

Sorry to be blunt, but if you want to pay the same price as the Kodak, then why not buy that model instead? I checked and the Kodak is sold out at Best Buy at $79.97. The Kodak is sold at Future Shop for $179.99. And that's just for the camera and alkaline batteries. So I think $150 is a fair price.

_____________________________________________
From: F
Sent: Tuesday, November 13, 2007 2:57 PM
To: E
Subject: RE: Sony DSC-W1 5.1MP Digital Camera

Well it has a better LCD and focus range, but it's heavier and has less ISO choices, and it's probably out of warranty… for the rest it looks pretty similar.
I'll buy it for a 100$, maybe more but I'll have to discuss it at home.

How much are you comfortable to negotiate?

F

____________________________________________
From: E
Sent: Tuesday, November 13, 2007 2:44 PM
To: F
Subject: RE: Sony DSC-W1 5.1MP Digital Camera

The Sony DSC-W1 is a better camera overall.

http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/compare_post.asp?method=sidebyside&cameras=kodak_c533%2Csony_dscw1&show=all

What were you thinking of offering?

//E

_____________________________________________
From: F
Sent: Tuesday, November 13, 2007 1:45 PM
To: E
Subject: RE: Sony DSC-W1 5.1MP Digital Camera

Why not.

Is it negotiable?

This 5MP camera + bag + 2Gb + tax, is available at best buy for less than 150$:
http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/specs/Kodak/kodak_c533.asp

F


_____________________________________________
From: E
Sent: Tuesday, November 13, 2007 12:19 PM
To: F
Subject: RE: Sony DSC-W1 5.1MP Digital Camera

Hi F,

Yes it is. Would you like me to bring it in tomorrow?

_____________________________________________
From: F
Sent: Tuesday, November 13, 2007 12:15 PM
To: E
Subject: RE: Sony DSC-W1 5.1MP Digital Camera

Hi,

I could be interested.

Is it still available?

_____________________________________________
Sent: Monday, November 12, 2007 2:14 PM
Posted To: For Sale
Subject: Sony DSC-W1 5.1MP Digital Camera

http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/specs/Sony/sony_dscw1.asp (photo is of a black one, this one is silver)

Works perfectly fine. Comes with 2 rechargable AA batteries and charger, USB cable, software.

Will throw in 1Gb and 512Mb Memory Sticks and Lowepro carrying pouch.

All for $150.

Tuesday morning

I think my blog is boring. It tends to be full of mundane, everyday stuff. Very seldom is it really exciting or thought provoking. I guess this blog really is more of an outlet for my emotional being. In other words, it's a bit of a selfish outlet. This is, in a sense, my semi-public diary. I air my thoughts and concerns about my life. To avoid breaching other people's privacy, I avoid talking about people who are close to me. Besides, if friends have confided in me something, I'm not about to divulge it here.

Anyway...

I will be working from home today. I'm not 100% sure if this guy will be able to come by to clean the dryer ducts. I suspect one of those European sparrows that proliferate the area built a nest in there while I was away in May. So now the dryer duct is blocked which means my clothes won't dry. I've been air drying my clothes for a couple of months now. I think it's about time I get to use my dryer again.

I suppose I could take advantage of today to get a few things done around the place. Clean up a bit. Start to pack a few things. Get some papers in order. Run a few errands as well. Hopefully, I will be able to pick up the heater for the home office. It's one of these wall-mounted convection heaters. The thermostat went on it. The part itself costs about $38. Throw in labor and the total cost is $118. Ouch. If the dryer duct guy comes, I'm looking at potentially $250 minimum for that job. *sigh* Just can't win. :p

Oh, throw on top of that the amount I will be paying for pet sitting while I am away. Usually, a friend who lives down the street from me would be able to to it. However, he will also be on vacation during the same time I will. I've asked around to see who might be able to help out. There was one guy at work I asked who lives nearby. However, he's been wishy washy about giving me an answer. Screw that. I ended up asking at the vet clinic when I went to pick up some catfood for BS. They didn't (or won't) recommend any pet sitters but could recommend boarding facilities. However, considering BS's mental state when he's taken away from home, that was not an ideal option. But, the clinic did say they could provide the service of having a vet tech come by to take care of the cats. The cost they quoted me was about $49/day. Ouch! That was at least twice what some of the pet sitters were asking for. After I got home, I saw that there was a message from the vet clinic. It seems that after discussing this with the vet and considering that I have been a long time client, they wanted to offer the services for $650 (plus tax, of course). This comes out to about $30/day. Not cheap, but it is better. I suppose the one pro to this is that it would be a vet tech coming to take care of the cats instead of an animal lover. Not that I don't trust them, but it's just an added peace of mind. Bottom line, I don't have to take the cats away from the comforts of home.

That being said, money matters have been stressing me. It just seems that when it rains it pours. The unexpected expenses and such just drive me nuts at times. On top of all that, I have this trip coming up as well. I really have to keep an eye on any spending that I do while I am out there. :p If I plunk down any significant coin on anything, it had better be pretty damn special!

Meanwhile, I think I've managed to get most of my travel papers in order. I got my passport back last week with the tourist visa for China. That was another expense. They just had to have the one consulate in Ottawa. That's about 5 hrs of driving round trip. The visa would take a few days to process. Then another 5 hour round trip. Essentially, I would lose 2 days of work. :-p So I paid someone else to do it. Eh. Whatever.

Sunday

The weekend is nearly over. *sigh* Well, that kinda sucks.

Last night I had some friends over for hot pot. It was good. We had fun. Everyone left with their bellies full of hot pot goodness and desserts. Oh, some port made it into some of the bellies as well. I think it's a nice way to start off this cold-weather season. B brought a marbled cheesecake that was quite good and rich. S & M brought these yummy little cookies. S made little cheesecake sandwiches with the coconut wafer cookies and dipped them in the porto. It looked quite good. At the end of it all, there were only a few almond shortbread cookies and a quarter of the cheesecake left.

I think I had 2 glasses of port. The second one must have went straight to my head. By the time everyone was leaving, I could barely keep my eyes open! It would have been quite rude of me as the hostess of this soiree to fall asleep! :-) Anyway, I went to bed after I cleaned up the last bits. Everyone helped to pick up and clear the table. I love my friends for always giving a hand without being asked! :-)

I think I hit my head on the pillow around 11:30-12:00. I was awoken around 5AM by Blueshit who wanted to be fed. After I fed him I went back to bed. At some point my alarm went off at 7:30. I hit snooze and didn't wake up again until about 9:30. Crap. It's a bit late to go to the supermarket. I usually preferred to do my grocery shopping in the morning when it's less crowded. I try to avoid Saturdays if I can help it. However, at some point this afternoon, I felt that I needed to at least pick up a few things. So I went out around 3:30PM.

The trip to the supermarket reminded me why I rarely went for groceries in the afternoon on weekends. It was a true test of patience. People with their carts everywhere, often blocking aisles. You also get those who have no idea where they're going and just stop. The truly annoying people are the ones who see you are trying to pass by but just don't move. I think I need to practice my look of sheer evil for such occasions. *sigh*

I spent most of today working on my Flash. I think I may have finally resolved the snowfall issue of the project assignment. I started work on the 3rd assignment. I think I made some pretty good progress. (^o^)/

I'm taking a bit of a breather now. I just had some dinner. Wasn't much really, just some left over chicken curry. I bought some naan bread to go with it. I'm kinda full now. :-p

Yes, it's a bit slow this morning....

So I came across this site which I think is pretty cool! Some interesting ideas, that's for sure! :)

(O_O)

I thought I would be more of a capuccino, but anyway... :)

You Are an Espresso

At your best, you are: straight shooting, ambitious, and energetic At your worst, you are: anxious and high strung You drink coffee when: anytime you're not sleeping Your caffeine addiction level: high

What Kind of Coffee Are You?

Had a rough week? You could be Dwight.

Thursday Morning

It's cold. My feet are cold. I am without a heater in the back room. I'll probably only be able to take it to the service center Saturday. :p I guess I will have to run all my errands right after my workout on Saturday. I have guests over Saturday evening.

Nothing too exciting. Wake up. Feed meowing cat. Go to work. Curse about things not working. Go to class. Go home. Do some more work on assignments. Yeah. I don't have much of a life a the moment. But heck, I feel like I am accomplishing something! :-)

Other than that, I think the more I think about it the more I think I will go ahead and put in an offer on that house when I get back from vacation. After talking to a number of people, they all agree on going in low on the offer. I can't blame them. For sure, at least $20K is needed for some of the work to be done: the floors, the kitchen, the basement. I think what I would end up doing is add what I would need to the mortgage. At least this way it would be at an interest more reasonable than if I took out a personal loan or a line of credit. Anyway, this is about a month away.

Meanwhile, I need to go to my cardio workout tonight. I missed Tuesday's workout.

Eeeeek! Everything is falling apart!

Well, not really. It just seems that way.

After weeks of procrastinating, I finally called someone about getting the dryer vent unblocked. So I called this guy referred to me by this guy who repairs appliances who was referred by the guy who works with the ventilation systems here at work. (I know a guy who knows a guy...) Anyway, I told him what area I lived. When he asked what floor I was on and I said 3rd, he went, "TABAR-NOOSH!". Uh-oh. That did not sound good.

Long story short, he had a job in the neighborhood recently. Where the vent is located outside is very difficult to access. It would require at least a 60' ladder which he doesn't have but would have to rent. Bottom line, it would cost me minimum $250 for the job. *sigh* Well, it has to get done at some point. Also, the weather conditions would have to be such that it would be safe for him as well. Can't blame him there! Anyway, appointment has been set for next Tuesday. If the weather sucks then it will have to wait until after I get back from my trip.

Light bulbs. In the span of a few days, I've had 3 bulbs go out on me. Two of the bulbs were from the same socket. One of the guys at work suspects that Hydro maybe adjusting the power now that it's gotten cooler and people are starting to crank up the heat. :-p

Speaking of heat, I noticed that the digital readout on the convection heater in the back room is a bit funny. It reads FR instead of the temperature. I found a place and called about it. I'd have to remove the unit from the wall and bring it in for them to diagnose. Yay... Now I've got to move the bookcase that is in front of the breaker panel. I've been meaning to relocate this bookcase, but I just never got around to it. So I guess I will be doing that tonight!! :p

Meanwhile, I made the appointment to have my car readied for the winter. I need a new set of winters because the other set has already gone through 7 winters. This will set me back at least $400. *sigh* Thank goodness this week is payday.

Anyway... Still at work. I think I will go home now. :p

Nearly obsessed

Sometimes when I get it into my head that I want to do something, I almost alway go ahead and do it. This situation with the house seems to be one of those things. So here is an image of the object of my current near-obsession. This place is literally around the corner from my place.

Fall Back

I guess I forgot to mention that this weekend we had to adjust our clocks. "Fall back" as it were. Some people see it as gaining an extra hour of sleep, which I would tend to agree. I think the con to this would be that come 10:00PM you already want to go to bed.

Speaking of bed, I laundered the bed linen yesterday. I love how the front loader spins a lot of the excess water out of the laundry. I threw the sheets and stuff to wash in the morning. I hung them to dry (I still need to get my dryer issue resolved). By evening, the stuff is all dried. Since the weather has been getting cooler, I figure it was about time to double up the duvet. I had bought at Ikea a few years back this 4-season down duvet. It's essentially 2 duvets of different thickness. There are velcro attachments in six places. When you velcro them together, it becomes this one super warm, soft, fluffy duvet. Ahhhh! I was toasty warm last night! So where the cats. :p

Meanwhile, I'm wondering what to do next. I am seriously considering selling my condo and buying a townhouse that's for sale around the corner from me. The thing with it is that I think this will require some belt tightening. The thought had also crossed my mind about maybe asking the folks for a small loan to help give me the extra boost, but I won't cross that bridge until I have to. It's a huge deal for me, I think, to decide to sell one place to buy another. I know there will be some amount of stress involved. :-p

At the same time, I am wondering about what course I should take next and where. If I want to continue with on the creative side of things, then maybe I should take some other web design related courses at Dawson versus the ContEd courses at Concordia. The courses at Dawson are less expensive and are usually taught by very knowledgeable instructors. The web design program at Concordia is pretty new, so I don't know what the quality of the teaching is like. So I will have to think about that a little bit.

Well, enough musings for a Monday morning... Got some work to do.

Weekend Update

Well, weather-wise, it hasn't been all that bad here. I guess it was sunny for the most part. Saturday was a bit on the nippy side when I went out for my workout. I really need to look into finding better workout clothing. I think the stuff cross-country skiers wear would be appropriate. Need to have something that will wick away the sweat but also keeping you warm.

Anyway, after my workout yesterday, I had to swing by Rona to look for lightbulbs. I now had TWO burnt out lights: one in the kitchen and one by the dining room/stairs. Thankfully, they're both the same type of halogen bulb.

I think I've been a bit of a piggy and just eating way too much lately. I weighed myself the other day and could not believe how much I've gained! :p As a result, I need to keep an eye on my portions and cut down on some of the fatty bad stuff too. *sigh* And I was doing pretty well for a while there. I don't want to say that the weight gain might be due to some of the muscles I'm slowly building from the workouts.

Last night, I had some leftover 3-bean chicken chili over macaroni. It might have been a slightly large portion, but it was sooo good! For lunch I had made some rice porridge. It's a bit heavy, but warming on a cold day. Today, I was bad. I had a whole Dr. Oetker's thin crust mushroom pizza for lunch. To compensate, for dinner I had a salad of mixed greens, grape tomatoes, red peppers and blue cheese dressing. Somewhere along the way, I had some yogurt and a few Snack-aralli. I think I need to curb the snacking somewhat as well. :-p

Anyway, today I think I made some headway in my Flash project. I had some issues with making some leaves change color, but I think I managed. Next step is to add in some other seasonal details.

Friday

Okay.. I'll spare you any more Red Sox videos and other images. :)

It's finally Friday. I've actually got some work to do today. Later this evening, I have a real estate agent coming by to assess the value of my place. I'm thinking of "upgrading" from a condo to a small townhouse. Square-footage, it would be a bit bigger, but it won't be terribly huge. It would be nice to have a small backyard to do a little bit of gardening. Anyway, we'll see how it goes.

This weekend, I need to work on my Flash project. I need to start drawing some items that I will use in the project. I need to draw at least a tree, some flowers and maybe a shrub or two. I want to keep it relatively simple. I don't want to make it so complicated that I won't be able to finish it.

Hopefully one of the guys in the office can come over and help me test out the dryer before I call the vent guy to see about getting the exhaust vent for the dryer looked at and cleaned if necessary.

Yes, my life is just soooo exciting at times. :p

And MORE!!! (At least until it gets yanked)

This is my typical morning...

But wait! There's more!!!

If you can't get enough of Papelbon...

Rally highlights

In case you missed it: *CLICK*

Red Sox Rolling Rally

I'm spending most of my lunch hour watching the webcast on Fox25 of the victory rally for the World Series Champs, the Red Sox. They have a flatbed truck with the Dropkick Murphys and Jon Papelbon. What's the big deal? Check this out:

I wonder if other teams have such characters on their teams.

Meanwhile, I think I've finished my second Flash assignment. This should allow me to work on the project. What I will probably do is work on creating the graphics that will be used in this Flash project. I will need to draw some trees and flowers and other such things. If I can, i will try to use some images in this presentation. If I can find a decent image of a bare, leafless tree, then that would be great. Maybe find an image of a bunny rabbit to hop across the screen or something. Anyway, I have all these ideas in my head. I just need to get them out and onto the screen.

Tonight, I plan on going to my cardio workout. No excuse tonight. The weather is not too bad. It might be a bit on the cool side, but it's not unbearable. Just dress in layers and I should be fine. :-) Tomorrow is the Flash class. Workout again on Thursday. Home assessment on Friday.

Oh, man! I don't know how I manage sometimes...

Please Welcome the 2007 World Series Champions...

The Boston Red Sox!!!

The boys managed to do it this year! It was a tight game, but they held on and pulled through!

Things got iffy in the 8th. But the team pulled through!! :D

Eek!!!

Okay, so there were a couple of places that had an Open House today. I figure it wouldn't hurt to at least check them out. Besides, they were right around the corner from me.

The first place I went to wasn't bad. It was cozy. The kitchen cabinets could do with a bit of an update. The carpeting on the main floor would have to go and be replaced with hardwood floors. The bedrooms on the 2nd floor are not bad. There were a couple of Chinese guys there commenting on the small size of the rooms. I'm like "DUH!". If they had any clue about the homes in the area, they should already have a idea about the size of the rooms. Sheesh. The basement seems to be half finished. The asking price is $359,000. Considering the work I would want to have done on it, I'd probably knock about $15,000 from that price.

There were also a few young couples looking around as well. I don't know how serious some of them are. I might end up having to take out a line of credit if I were to buy this place and fix it up.

The other place I checked out was just a few doors down in the same row of townhouses. It's a corner unit. It's cute. The layout is different. It doesn't have a mezzanine level though. It's cozy, but it doesn't feel as big for some reason. Anyway, the asking price for this property is $439,000. It's a bit more than what I can afford.

Meanwhile, at the first home, I was talking to the agent there. I told her I lived around the corner. I don't have any fixed dates for moving. It was pretty much a situation where if things fall into place, then it could happen. She offered to do an assessment of my place. So we set up an appointment for Friday evening. :-o I guess we'll see. If something does happen, I don't want to have to move until at least the spring. Winter moves are a hug pain in the arse; especially if there's snow and shite. :-p

I guess we'll see.

Uhm, yeah, okay, whatever..

Yesterday

After I had a relatively early spper, I went out for a walk. I went mainly because I needed milk. As I was changing into someting more comfortable to walk in I noticed the rising moon. I immediately went to grab my camera and tripod. I shot of a bunch of shots in succession as the moon was rising above the Bombardier building. I was too lazy to upload them last night. I'll probably get around to it later today.

Also, I was in a bit of a mood yesterday evening before I went out for a walk. Later it wasn't so bad as I distracted myself with my Flash assignment. Not bad for an hour's work. Once I figure out how to post what I've been working on, I will. :-)

The Red Sox Nation

The point being made in this article is rather interesting. I think some of your true die-hard fans of the Sox would know not to look a gift horse in the mouth. The fans who have been around for a long time know how long-suffering the real fans are. The fans who had to endure the infamous 1986 World Series. Bucky F*cking Dent. All of it. Anyway... Let's see who remains in the Red Sox Nation if our team doesn't do well for a few seasons...

Friday

It's finally Friday. I've been pretty tired all week from staying up later than I should most evenings. Of course there were a few nights there when there was a Sox game on to watch. :D

Here's a little ditty I found on the Boston Dirt Dogs site:

Oh, the Places Tulowitzki and Torrealba Won't Go!

With apologies to Dr. Seuss...

Rox
Sox
Sox on Fox Rox on Fox
Sox on Fox
Rox vs. Sox on Fox
Sox vs. Rox on Fox
Sox vs. Rox in Coors Bandbox

Sox have Jocks
Rox have Jocks
Jocks in Field or Batter's Box
Jocks with Money Box of Stocks
Papi strong as Wild Ox

Fox ex-Jocks sit in Press Box
Listen to Tim McCarver's Vox!
The insanity he Talks and Squawks
Joe Buck oughtta clean his Clocks

Rox beat Sox
Sox beat Rox

No one claims the games are Locks
And on some wood a Nation Knocks
But if the Rox Outfox the Sox
Or Gagne Walks or Beckett Balks
It surely would cause Mocks and Shocks
Requiring Whiskey on the Rocks

... and then, as Manny says, there will always be next year ... -- Mark Stebbins, 10.24.07

Meanwhile, I got my copy of Leopard delivered today. I can't wait to get home to install it. I hope it goes smoothly! And on the subject of Leopard:


Meanwhile, I have a lot I need to and would like to get done this weekend. We were given our 2nd Flash assignment. This time there will be some animation involved. I also have an idea for the final project. I emailed the instructor to get his feedback on the subject.

Wed Ness Day

Tonight is Game 1 of the World Series. I think the game is suppose to start around 8:30 after all the opening ceremonies. I have class tonight. I think I should be home in time to catch some of the first inning.

My Flash class seems to be coming along. I didn't get a chance to play around with the Flash editor too much this weekend. Instead, I managed to clean up my deck of most of the planters. The only planters left on the deck are the 2 large ones I use for the tomato plants. I did at least cut down and remove the plants from the pots.

My first Flash assignment is to create a greeting card. The instructor wanted us to use the tools of the editor. I did my best with my feeble imagination. This is what I came up with:


What do you think?

The Red Sox Are Gunning For It Again!

Well, it looks like the Red Sox are heading to the World Series this year. It's been 3 years since that awesome 2004 World Series Championship. Of the winning team from 2004, I think 7 still remain for this year's World Series. Twice in a life time you think?

Sunday Morning

I know. It's been a few days since I posted anything interesting here.

Thursday, my group at work had an outing. The outing was a trip up north to bike ride and barbecue. I really didn't want to go all the way up there. I think some of the other women didn't feel like going up either. We told our team leader that we were on strike with regards to the outing. But X went. She was our sole representative up there. :-) In any case, we did have some work to do in the morning. Then three of us went out to lunch together. We gossiped a bit and compared notes with regards to work and all. We had fun. We don't always find the time to get together like that and talk. Even after we got back to the office we continued to talk and gossip for at least another hour. Since just about everyone else had gone on the outing it was pretty quiet.

I almost didn't want to go to my cardio workout that evening, but I made myself go. In the end, you do feel satisfied that you went. I was a little tired and sore, but I fel good that did go and managed to accomplish something.

Friday, not much was going on. I had some stuff to work on in the morning. Some software requests in the afternoon. Otherwise, it wasn't overly busy. After work, I needed to go to RONA to look for replacement halogen bulbs for my desk lamp. The small light bulb section at the supermarket didn't carry them. I found my halogen bulbs. Afterwards, I went over to Future Shop. Yes, I know. I was just looking for trouble there. For whatever reason, I was thinking about the Wii. A friend had mentioned the Wii Fit to me. I checked it out. It looks quite interesting. Unfortunately, it won't be released in North America until sometime in 2008. However, it will be released in Japan during the week that I am there. Hmm.. Well, in the end I did not get the Wii. However, I did end up getting the 8x6 Wacom Bamboo Fun tablet. I want to use it with my Flash app and most likely the other apps in the future as well.

Yesteday, after my cardio workout, I did some decluttering of my workspace. I cleared off enough space on my desk to place the Wacom. It's kinda neat. I can see why now how anything smaller just isn't very practical for doing anything significant. I had also checked out on the web the other sizes and models of the Wacom. They're not cheap, the more "pro" models of the tablet. :p

Anyway, I have a few things I would like to do today. So I should try and get that under way.

Midweek

So, it seems that I have been checking out Second Life a bit more. However, I am trying my best not to end up in an addictive situation where the minute I get home I login to SL. That would not be in my best interest. Instead, I am making a conscious effort to do what I need to get done (chores, homework, bills, etc.) before I think about logging in to SL. Things can easily go downhill if I don't.

Meanwhile, work has been busy. There has been technical problems that have been hindering the completion of some testing I've been doing. I should have been able to finish everything yesterday. However, because of one lingering issue, I might not be able to until sometime this morning. I hope.

There is a group outing tomorrow. The plan is to go up north to do some cycling and then enjoy a barbecue. I don't think I will participate. It seems that most of the women in the group do not want to go either for one reason or another. As my colleague S said, this department will be run by the women tomorrow. Haha!

I didn't go to my cardio workout last night. Why? I was operating on 4 hrs sleep yesterday. I somehow managed to stay up until 1:00AM Monday night/Tuesday morning. So you can imagine how much of a Zombie I was. :p Last night I did better. I went to bed a little after 11:00PM. Tonight, I hope to at least equal that or better it.

I have class tonight. I started to work on the assignment he gave last week over the weekend. We're suppose to create a greeting card using the tools we learned in the class. No animation yet. That might be for the next assignment. I hope he gives out the final Project soon. I'd like to try to get a head start on it since I will be leading on vacation in a month!

*yawn* I think I need my coffee now.

It always seem to end with Crisco

Upcoming Trip

Well, this year I had decided to make use of the vacation days I've accumulated. I currently get 4 weeks of vacation each year. For some reason, I still have some extra days accumulated from previous years. As a result, I had about 6.5 weeks of vacation before I decided on my trip to Italy. Italy only used up about 3 weeks. So what to do with the remaining days? Well, I've got another trip coming up. I'll be heading off to the Far East again. This time, I will be visiting, Hong Kong, Shanghai and Tokyo (yes, again).

I'll be taking off in about a month's time to Hong Kong where I will spend a week and a half with my brother and my parents. We're actually going to meet and take the same flight out of ORD to HKG. I have never flown with my folks, so this might prove to be an interesting adventure. In fact, it's been YEARS since I've gone on any trip with my folks. Oh boy.

After HKG, my bro and folks will be heading home. I, on the other hand, will continue on to Shanghai, where my friend A lives and works. I need to bitch slap him a few times. It seems that he's getting a little out of control there.

Next stop, Tokyo. My old buddy W is getting married. I happen to be there the week before he takes off to Hawaii with his lovely fiancee where they will marry. In fact they are flying the day after I leave. I should take them out to a nice place somewhere in Tokyo to toast and celebrate their impending nuptials.

I need to figure out what I need to do before I leave. For sure I will need to get a Visa for China. I'm not sure how much that will set me back, but I can't afford to take a day off just to go to Ottawa for this. I will probably call the visa person they use at work.

Anyway..

Memories of Italy

I recently received a CD with the above video from one of the fellow travellers from Australia. It's cute. :)

Long Awaited Update (continued)

So where was I? Ah!! Tuesday...

Tuesday:
Day of the Matthew Good show at Club Soda. I still have to go to work. G will be getting together with N during the day. The other night, I suggested that G go up Mount Royal. M chimed in that she wanted to do that to, but a friend she was going to go with couldn't. So the two of them arranged to go together. Along the way, they stopped at Schwartz's for some smoked meat sandwiches.

I decided to drive downtown. I figure that Matt will play at least a 2 hour set. If we wait for him to come out to sign stuff and have pics taken then that would take us beyond when the last metro would be. I didn't want to take that chance so I drove in and parked at Complexe Desjardins.

I met up with G and M. As we walked over to the venue to look for B, we bump into P. P wanted one of the extra tickets I had. I mentioned she should look for the red moose hat. M just happened to be wearing it when we were waiting at a corner for the light to change. P came up to her and asked if she were me. :) So our happy little group became 5 after we met up with B. :)

While we waited a bit in line, P mentioned the VIP card you can get from Club Soda. Apparently it was really easy to just go in and say you're there to pick up the card. They guy would just get a card and write your name on the back of it. Voila! It would allow us to get in about half hour before everyone else. This was a good thing because it let us scout out the place first. We also got to buy some swag before the crowds got there.

Anyway, the doors open. We go in. G and I head over to the side where there are tables and bar stools. We check out our gear. The security guy checks us out. He starts to wonder then gets this producer dude. Long story short, we can only take pics during the first 2 songs and no video. DAMN! In any case, I guess we were lucky because the security guys were stopping everyone else from taking pics. :p

Overall, I think it was a pretty good crowd. There wasn't much in the way of extraneous noise during the performance. Matt's banter between songs was quite humourous. He asked for a martini since there was a guy going around the crowd for drink orders. Eventually, he got something that resembled a martini. Don't think it was very good though.

After the show, we headed over to where the tour bus was. We all waited in line to get our pics taken and to have our stuff signed. I was the first one in our little group to go in. I asked Matt if he'd wear the moose hat. He said no but I had him sign it and the bag I got. G took a pic of me with Matt. G also took a pic of M and Matt. :-)

G didn't go meet Matt and have his pic taken with us. We convinced him that he should and we got back in line. M took a pic of G and Matt with her camera. :)

Finally, it was time to head back. M came back with us to the car because she left her jacket there. G and I headed back. I wasn't sure which on ramps were open at that hour so I took Sherbrooke all the way to Decarie. By the time I got home and hit my head on the pillow it was nearly 2AM.

Wednesday:
Work day. G flies back to Calgary.

Today:

Work. Workout. Chill... :-)

Long Awaited Update

Yes. I know that some of you have been wondering what's been happening over the long weekend. Some of you know that I went to the Matthew Good concert. Some of you know I entertained a guest over the long weekend. So let's start with where we left off, which was some time Friday.

I passed on the pub crawl Friday night because I wanted to do some last minute tidying up and hopefully, get to bed early as I had to go to the airport early to pick up my guest. Well, at least I accomplished one of the two. %-p A friend called me up around 8:30PM asking where I was. I told him. I also asked if he wanted to come over Monday night for ribs. He hesitated and mentioned something about class and labs. I reminded him that Monday was a holiday. "In that case, yeah, I think I should be able to make it!" Hehe!

Also, I was chatting with a couple of friends with whom I plan on having dim sum on Saturday. I told them about my guest. Then they bombarded me with 20 guestions! This is all due to the fact that I had not met G in person. We had only been chatting online for the past 6+ months on the Matthew Good Community IM. As with a few other people on the CIM, I've gotten to know him well enough that I think I can trust him. I reassured them that he was a nice guy and that he was coming over to visit because he's never been to Montreal and to catch the Matthew Good show.

Saturday:
I got up early, a bit bleary-eyed and tired, but I got up. Actually, I think BS woke me up. :p I checked on the progress of the flight. It looked like it might be late in arriving. I got myself ready and kept checking the status of the flight. The flight is suppose to land around 7:10AM but the flight tracker indicated it would land around 7:25AM. I think I headed out to the airport a little before 7AM.

I managed to get there a little after 7 and found a parking spot in the short-term lot. It took some manoeuvering but I managed. I went in to domestic arrivals. I scanned the crowd. A few minutes later, I see him standing there. The rainbow-colored luggage strap certainly helped to ID him. :D So off we go back to my place. Since it was a red-eye flight, G was pretty knackered. Since it was still pretty early and we didn't need to head into Chinatown just yet for dim sum, I let him rest a while. Meanwhile, I went over to the butcher shop to buy some baby back ribs. I wiped them out of the 4 racks of ribs they had in the case. :)

I think G napped for about an hour or so before I suggested we get moving. We met up with my friends at the restaurant. We waited a little while for a table. My friends got to know G a bit. We finally get our table, sat and ate. Afterwards, we all ended up heading towards downtown just to wander a bit. At some point my friends decided to head home. I suggested to G that maybe we could head over to Hurley's for a pint before heading back to my place. That evening we just took it easy and watched a movie.

Sunday:
The weather was a bit better today. G had mentioned he wanted to check out the Old Port and Vieux Montreal. So after we had something to eat we headed down there. We went to the archeological museum Point-A-Calliere. There was an exhibit on native American items. We also saw the ruins of what was there since the area was first settled. It was interesting. Afterwards, we headed off in the direction of Hurley's for their Sunday prime rib dinner special. Along the way, G snapped away at the interesting architecture. I suppose there's more interesting things to snap at in an older city than there are back in Calgary.

Monday:
In the morning, we went to the supermarket to pick up a few last minute items for the dinner that evening. M and her friend B along with my friend J were coming over for a dinner of ribs! Yumm!

M and B arrived a little before 5. We had some wine and cheese and some other nibbles. J arrived a little later. I was waiting for some chicken to be done before serving.

The ribs were really tasty. I brought out some hot sauces because someone asked. M found it just a tad too spicy! The dry-rub on the ribs were spicy enough. The extra sauce just made it that much more spicy! :)

The rest of the evening was quite fun. M had fun wearing a set of accessories I have. I think there's photographic evidence somewhere. I don't know if it will ever get posted somewhere. In any case, no one got hurt in the process!!! ;-)

Of course, this all ended fairly late. Sometime after 11PM %-) Of course, I have to work the next day! Ack!

(to be continued)

Friday

Okay, it's finally Friday. This week has been les than stellar. It was down-right boring. Workwise, there hasn't been much in the way of excitement. Well, unless you count that I am getting my laptop "refreshed" (i.e., upgrade to newer and faster machine). Otherwise, bleah.

I need to re-focus on what I've been doing (or not doing). Again, I find myself sitting in front of my computer at home most evenings and not being too productive. I really need to spend more time working on the on-line course. When I start getting assignments in my Flash course, I will need to focus on that as well. All this and to find time to play a little bit of Second Life.

Yes. I have been introduced to the wonderfule virtual world of Second Life. I'm not sure if this is a good thing, but I guess we shall see. As well, I will need to schedule time on this. But it will not take priority over my course work.

I'm still going to the cardio workout. The past couple of workouts I have concentrated on how I was breathing. I found that before, I was just not breathing properly to bring enough oxygen into my system. If I don't get enough oxygen then my heart would have to work harder to get the oxygen into the blood stream. I think it makes a difference in my heart rate. Using the Polar heart-rate monitor I have also helps me to keep better track of how I am doing during these workouts.

This weekend is a long weekend. Thanksgiving in Canada. I don't have a whole lot planned. There is one friend who's coming into town for the long weekend and the Matthew Good show Tuesday. I will have to go pick him up early tomorrow morning. I don't think I will stay up very late tonight. :p I do plan on having a ribs dinner Monday night with a few people. It should be good. :)

I know. I've been slacking off this week about updating this blog. I'll try to write something a bit more significant later. Right now I am getting ready to head out for my cardio workout. :)

Monday

I'm not a big believer of things such as Tarot readings, fortune telling, horoscopes and the like. However, I do read them for fun. Over the weekend, I used the Tarot Widget to do a reading. What came up was rather interesting. I think the card that was of most interest was the Hermit card. In the reading that was done, the interpretation was as such (according to my friend):

"It's a crossroads, time of decision and renewal. Sexually, you will probably experience a partnerless period, which you have the power to enjoy and profit from if you stay open to your body and its energies. Learn what you like and how you like to be loved and you will eventually know exactly what you want in a relationship. you will come to it whole, instead of needy; energized, instead of drained."

I found this rather interesting. I think to some extent I was already on this path. So I guess I'll just continue as I am doing my cardio workouts, taking the Flash course, doing things with friends etc. And eventually, if someone does come along, well then, I guess I'll just have to take it from there. :-)

It's all good.