del.icio.us

So I've been using del.icio.us for a few months now, and I have to say, I quite like it. For those of you who don't know what del.icio.us is, it's a site used mainly to store your bookmarks. However, it does things in a different way.

When you find a site you want to bookmark, you can simply right-click or click on the plug-in to update your bookmarks. What you will see is similar to the image above. The neat thing about this system is that you can tag (or label) your bookmarks any way you want, and you can use as many tags as you want to represent the bookmark. You can also share your bookmarks, although I don't choose to.

To find a bookmark, you can either do a search, or you can reference a tag cloud. The words in the tag cloud tend to be bigger or smaller depending on how often you use the tag.

Things I like about del.icio.us:

• You reference your bookmarks anywhere there is an Internet connection. I don't have to back up or copy over my browser bookmarks should I go through the pain of rebuilding my machine (or even better, should my computer crash)
  
• You're able to tag and group your bookmarks anyway you want, and not in a hierarchical fashion. This is great as this is how we tend to sort and organize things in our brain.
  
• You can add new bookmarks even if you're not at your usual computer
• You can filter down the bookmark list using the tags on the tag cloud.
  

Functionality I wished del.icio.us had:

• Believe it or not, I would love to be able to sort the bookmarks alphabetically. You can't, only with the tags can you sort alphabetically.
• When I'm tagging a page, I wish there was the ability to "guess" what tag I'm typing in, as in guess using an existing tag in my tag cloud. I don't want to tag things with similar words (eg "blog" vs. "blogs"). The two words are the same thing in my mind, and it's very annoying to have to go back and fix it.
• I would love the ability to automatically find 404 links and delete them.
  
• I would love the ability to exclude certain tags when doing a search.
  

Right now, I have about 1000 bookmarks, and the list has surprisingly shrank since I first exported my bookmarks over. As I'm super anal, I'm going through each and every bookmark to fix the tags and make them more meaningful to me, as well as fix my list of bookmarks.

Despite the negative points, I still like this tool, and rarely use my browser bookmarks any longer. Give it a try.

Importance of a 5-Point Harness Carseat

Someone on Hitched had posted this link, so I thought I would share. The title says it all.

Failure To Launch

We saw this last night. We really wanted to rent MI-3, but alas, there was nare a copy in sight at the video store. So out of all the pickings that was left over, this was something that we both didn't object to.

I'll give it 7 stars. Like your typical romantic comedies, it's cheesy. And a very typical romantic comedy. However, the premise of the plot is a little different, hence a higher score.

Matthew McConaughey for some reason, started to annoy me though. I can't place my finger on it, but it wasn't his character, it was, well... him.

Will it blend?

I was shown this by IT P/J the other day. Really, I don't know why you would feel the need to blend something as tough as glass marbles, but if you so desire, then there's a blender out there that will do it.

IT P/J mentioned in passing that they actually use these blenders in the Starbucks stores. Hmm....

(And as a side note, for someone who doesn't have time for anything, he somehow finds all these interesting things to send to me. =P)

Jane Eyre - The End? (Lots of spoilers

Okay, this is my last Jane Eyre post, for a little while anyways. I love the picture above, they look like a disgruntled married couple having an argument.

I thought I'd post some other viewer's comments:
I agree with The Unconscious Argentinean's comments the most, but didn't agree with her feelings under the "Things that troubled me" section. It was weird watching the flashbacks the first time in episode 4, but they work well, I think. Rochester's desperately trying to talk Jane into staying, he knows that she's going to leave. It's Jane who has the upper hand, not Rochester. Also, the lack of the childhood scenes. Frankly, I thought her childhood would translate quite boringly onto the screen, despite the fact that they are an important part to Jane's character development.

Here's one by Living in the Past and one by La Reine Noire.

And for some complete silliness, click for some picspam here (not quite SFW), and here.

Jane Eyre - Ultimate-Ultimate

Inevitably what happens after a TV or movie showing that people really like, there will be someone out there who makes a music video. Most music video out there are pretty quickly put together by amateurs, which goes to show you that the software is out there to make something pretty snazzy, very cheaply and easily nowadays.

Unfortunately, I find about 99% of them not worth watching. Music, I think is a very personal thing, so how one interprets music and relates it to his or her life is also very personal.

Anyways, I've been watching a great many Jane Eyre music videos, and have actually found some music that I really like. One thing about having people from around the world do these music videos is that I'm hearing music that I've never heard before, which I think is cool.

So I have some new ultimate-ultimates (warning, lots of spoilers below, so if you want to listen to the music, click, then minimize the browser to just listen):

Nara by E.S. Posthumus. I actually like this video, even though the editing is a little choppy (which I will forgive because this is a first-time video), is that it's presented a little differently that many music videos, and the music actually matches the mood the creator is trying to impart on us. I've since downloaded some more music by this group. What's also great about the music is that this music lends itself very well to movies, which is why it works so well in this video. If you actually check out Wikipedia, this same music has been used in several different movies.



Another great group that I've discovered is Within Temptation. They are a goth metal group from the Netherlands. I'm not normally into metal, but they put out some pretty funky stuff. The music video's okay, but I like the music itself more: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p1YdTRHW2-8

While this is not an ultimate-ultimate song, I'm putting it here because I like the bass (Everything by Lifehouse): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2s7qwYVbp6U

And for those of you who saw the trailers on TV, the music is by Goldfrapp, an electronica band from the UK: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TvN4aRILm5s

If you're a computer geek, raise your hands!

I know that it's past Halloween, but I thought I'd put this up anyways, it's mildly amusing, but only computer geeks will get it.

IT P/J, who sent me the link, said that the voices were all recorded separately. And apparently these people live all over the globe! Good coordination people!

Server Room of Horrors

Happy Halloween!

I figured since it's Halloween, I thought I'd talk about ghost and death.

One of the most well known ghosts is the Lady in Red that haunts Fairmont Vancouver Hotel. It has been said that she haunts the 14th floor (which is really the 13th floor) of the hotel, and has known to approach people in the dining room, demanding her seat back at the table where the patron is sitting in.

Ghosts have been sighted at the older movie theatres around Vancouver. (Sorry, the link won't work, just copy and paste into a new browser window. http://www.where.ca/vancouver/article_feature~listing_id~119.htm)

This link lists a few haunted places around the Lower Mainland. James Cowan Theatre and Ceperley House are about a 5 minute walk from each other, and about a 5 minute drive from my house. I've known about these ghosts forever as I've lived in this area most of my life. Ceperley House is now an art gallery. I remember going there as a child and I was consciously aware of the building was haunted, but never seen the ghost. Still I was scared. What can I say, I'm chicken shite (still am!).

Errol Flynn actually died in Vancouver. What he died from was pretty gross in itself.

One of the most famous murders in Vancouver history, the death of Scottish nanny, Janet Smith. It is rumoured that she haunts Hycroft Manor, along with some other ghosts.

Another well-known murder, which involved the well known Bow Mac sign on Broadway. (Janet Smith's murder is further down on the page).

This morning, one of the radio morning shows that I listen to on my way to work was broadcasting live from Balthazar. Where Balthazar stands now used to be a brothel back in the 1920s. Apparently the owner, a Madam Maxine, was murdered in the basement, and even today, many of the staff, especially those who have been there a long while, have had encounters with her. Fun stuff.

Man, I'm going to give myself nightmares tonight. I told you I was chicken shite.

The Picard Song: SIMS

IT P/J sent this to me. The dancing SIMS crack me up, and I still pee in my pants every time I watch it, and the original video. Apparently, the original remix was done by Dark Materia, and you can even download the MP3 from the site.



And just for old times sake, the original video:

CAN

A friend of mine sent this to me a few days ago. Normally I don't post stuff like this. I'm not the type to buy into fuzzy, feel good stories like all those "Chicken Soup for the Soul" type of things. Frankly, I find them extremely boring. I don't find puppies cute or revel in nice scenery.

However, I'm putting this link up to remind myself that no matter how much I would love to have control over how where my life leads me, I don't have any control. Zero. Zip. Nada.

This is also a reminder to myself to look for the good in a not-so-good situation, because there is good in everything, even when I can't see it.

We as humans can be really short-sighted at times. Really.

CAN

I've had an epiphany just now...

I've realized just today that I've been holding a lot of anger, resentment and bitterness in one part of my life. Specifically, towards one person. This person, I don't have much respect for, yet I need to work with person, and to get something done that also been a thorn in my side for the last six years. I think that's partially been holding me back for so long.

I want to get on with my life my way, but these feelings of resentment have been really holding me back. There is light at the end of tunnel, I just choose to ignore it and whine.

So I'm going to stop whining at get on with it.

I will try my hardest not to continue feeling anger, resentment, and bitterness, after all, I'm human as well. But knowing is half the battle, and knowing what's been dragging me down this past 1.5 years helps me let go of things a little easier.

Really, I don't have a lot to complain about. I know someone who recently lost her leg in a car accident; someone else fighting cancer; and still many others who battle with infertility issues, weight issues and money issues. I have none of that. My life's pretty good all things considered.

I've been praying for a long time for me to get to this point. And I've finally gotten there.

Law & Order: SLU

Someone on my chat board posted this, so I thought I'd share, it's very funny. It amazes me to no end that the Muppets can still entertain me. I think even some of the jokes younger kids may not understand. This clip rocks!

Tired...

I had a very harrowing week this week. I was not in a happy place in terms of work (something blew up), and it was only today we finally fixed it. I think I will go to bed soon which is not a good idea as I was hoping to get about 4 hours of homework done.

That just means that I will really need to focus tomorrow and get as much done as I can to make up for the 4 hours I'm losing tonight. What I'm doing now is pretty tedious and time consuming, which makes it look like I've done nothing. So I'm not in a very happy place right now...

Bah.

Jane Eyre (Part 3) - Meet Edward

When I first heard that Toby Stephens was to play Mr. Rochester, I thought, "Who the heck is he?" Well, I went over to IMBD and lo and behold, I have seen him before. He played the the Korean-cum-White Boy baddie in Die Another Day. Believe it or not, one of the few things I remembered about this film was how impressed I was with the actor who played Gustav Graves. In fact, in the scene above, if you listen to the commentary on the DVD, they were quite astounded by the depth of acting. I recall thinking that this was one of the better bad guys that I've seen, and I actually liked his evilness.














As I had mentioned earlier, Mr. Rochester is my favourite hero because he's so passionately in love with Jane. I love Toby as Mr. Rochester. Like Ruth Wilson, he brings so much depth, charisma and emotion to the character. Toby made Mr. Rochester alive in my mind. So, here are my impressions of Mr. Rochester as I was watching Jane Eyre.

Mr. Rochester is creepy. I've noted that on at least three occasions, Rochester knows exactly where Jane is, even if she thinks he doesn't. I suppose when you're newly in love with someone, you always know where that person is. You tend to be hypersensitive when it comes to that other person. Rochester's "Jane-radar" was going waaay off the scale. At least twice, he pops out from nowhere. Similar instances are in the book, but watching it as it is portrayed really gave me the creeps, I thought he was stalking Jane.

Mr. Rochester has bad hair. I have decided that I don't like the long hair. I don't know whose idea it was to give him long hair, but I thought at times he looked about 50 years old, and one time, I though he was actually constipated. I blame the hair for that. Plus, Toby kept on having hair accidents off-set. What you see are hair extensions, and they would fall out once in while, and at the most inopportune times. Poor guy. He would have looked much younger and better looking with short hair (Okay, Mr. Rochester is supposed to be not much to look at, but Toby Stephens is a very good looking man, so hence the hair comment. Gimme a break, I'm female).

Mr. Rochester is a big jerk. Really, it never occurred to me that how Rochester was treating Blanche and Jane was not right. Not only was he was being manipulative, but cruel even. It was the first thought that went through my head when I realized (after all these years) what Rochester really was doing with the whole house party thing. So thank you Toby for showing me what a jackass Rochester can be. And I still don't know what Jane sees in him.

Mr. Rochester is a magical cowboy. Okay, this has nothing to do with the character and everything to with the actor. I've noticed that when Toby is walking, he looks like he's swaggering. Either his shoes hurt him, or his breeches are too tight, but I always think he's in pain. This is not a slight on him, merely an observation, so please don't flame me. As for the magical part, his mother's none other than Maggie Smith, and at least once, I thought I saw the McGonagall glare. Hey, it's in the genes. (I think he looks a bit like her, and probably where he got his chiseled good looks).

But really, Toby is an excellent actor. I've been watching clips of some of his other work that he's done, and I'm thinking, "Wow! This guy is really, really good!" If you don't believe me, click here for the clips; just be careful that you avoid the Jane Eyre ones as they contain spoilers. So I'll be watching a lot of Toby in the near future.

Don't go yet, still more coming...

Jane Eyre (Part 2) - Meet Jane

This is Ruth Wilson. She plays Jane Eyre in the new BBC adaptation. I have to say that she was AWESOME as Jane! Really!

The one thing about her acting that I love is how she shows emotion. Her face is very expressive and she can do subtle very well. Even when her facial expression seems to be bland, you can tell that something's just brewing below the surface. That takes talent.

I've never realized before how emotional and passionate a person Jane Eyre was until I saw this adaptation. A previous adaptation that I've seen long ago with Timothy Dalton had Jane act really dull and lifeless. This of course coloured my characterization, in my mind, of Jane as a dull, lifeless person. If you don't believe me, watch this YouTube clip.

But Jane Eyre is anything but. Ruth Wilson really made Jane Eyre's character come alive. While re-reading the novel, I suddenly pictured her as Jane, and I could see that she really was an interesting person.

So Ruth Wilson, thank you so much for showing me Jane's true character, and show me who Mr. Rochester fell in love with! (Really, I've always wondered what he saw in her!)

Another kudos for Ruth. If you check out her IMDB page, you will note that she's has virtually nothing on her CV. This is because this girl pretty much came out of acting school last year. I'm definitely looking forward to watching her in the future. She's made a fan of me.

Still more coming...

Jane Eyre (Part 1) - some spoilers

Once in a while, I get very obsessive about a certain thing. My poor husband has to put up with my obsessions, usually by ignoring me (but pretending to listen/care). Well, if you can guess from my last post, Jane Eyre is my new obsession.

So the BBC just aired a new adaptation of Jane Eyre. I have to say I quite liked it. I had to first watch it bent over my laptop (very uncomfortable), as it won't be airing in North America until January 2007 on Masterpiece Theatre. Thus, I entered the world of illegal downloads (something I've never done before), mainly because I did manage to watch the first episode when it aired in the UK, and got sucked in. (You lawyer type out there, I will be buying the DVD, so leave me alone!)

Before I go on, I must warn those of you who love the book and who intend on watching this latest adaptation that this version has been modernized a fair bit. And I don't mean so much of the language as some scenes/passages were either removed, rearranged or redone, all for the 21st century audience. There were a lot of complaints that there was a fair bit of the novel missing, or not redone to their liking. This group I would label more as "purists" to the novel itself. I won't go into too much detail as I don't want to spoil your viewing pleasure should you choose to watch.

However, I recall having the exact reaction the first time I saw Pride and Prejudice (the one with Keira Knightley). This too was modernized somewhat and I forced myself to throw away all my preconceptions and to watch it a second time in the theatre. I have to say I enjoyed it better the second time around and it did work well, but it still should have been longer than 2.5 hours.

So after seeing Jane Eyre at least twice over (and some of the episodes more than twice), I have to say, give it a chance, it does grow on you.

So here's my opinions/weird thoughts thus far...
- The mad lady wasn't mad looking enough
- Yes, the ending was cheesy, but it fit in the the screenplay writer's vision of Jane Eyre
- The kissing scenes fit in well, but I feel this is where most of the purists will complain (once you see it you will understand).
- No, my favourite quote isn't in there, it got replaced with something just as good =D

Favourite line by a minor character:
Adele: Mrs. Fairfax, Mr. Rochester says that all the ladies will find me disgusting!
Mrs. F: That's nice dear.

Favourite non-verbal scene:
Lady Ingram giving Jane the iciest stare in the world. Even I could feel the chill! (Sorry, I couldn't find a decent pic of this, but Francesca Annis was absolutely perfect for Lady I!)

More to come...

Jane Eyre: a book review(-ish)

Believe it or not, I've never read the entire novel of Jane Eyre from beginning to end. I've always intended to, but really there are parts of the novel which are really, really boring and wholly unromantic.

What propelled me to finally read the whole novel were two things:
1) I have a ton of novels that I've never fully read sitting on my bookshelf. So I made a resolution of sorts to read through every one of them from beginning to end before I buy any more books. Okay, I've bought some since, but I'm definitely keeping to my resolution of reading the books from beginning to end. I am notorious for skipping over sections and reading the ending before I actually get to it. What can I say, I get bored and impatient easily. I don't think there's a single book that I haven't done this to.
2)The BBC put forth yet another adaptation of Jane Eyre, which has just finished airing in the UK. I found out about it before my UK trip and actually saw the first episode when we were in Scotland. More on that later.

I have to say that I liked the book, and actually reading through some of the boring bits helped me understand Jane and the plot a bit better. However, I suspect that when I re-read this book again, I'll probably only go back to the parts I like.

Although Jane Eyre isn't my favourite book, Mr. Rochester is my favourite romantic hero. Sorry, but Mr. Darcy is a big stick in the mud as a character, Mr. Rochester is way more dynamic and romantic in my opinion. Really rich guy falls for a poor, plain Jane, what woman wouldn't want that happeneing?

My favourite quote from the book, from Ch 27 (Mr. Rochester speaking to Jane):

Then you are mistaken, and you know nothing about me, and nothing about the sort of love of which I am capable. Every atom of your flesh is as dear to me as my own: in pain and sickness it would still be dear. Your mind is my treasure, and if it were broken, it would be my treasure still: if you raved, my arms should confine you, and not a strait waistcoat -- your grasp, even in fury, would have a charm for me: if you flew at me as wildly as that woman did this morning, I should receive you in an embrace, at least as fond as it would be restrictive. I should not shrink from you with disgust as I did from her: in your quiet moments you should have no watcher and no nurse but me; and I could hang over you with untiring tenderness, though you gave me no smile in return; and never weary of gazing into your eyes, though they had no longer a ray of recognition for me. -- But why do I follow that train of ideas?

My only major beef with the book is St. John Rivers. I couldn't believe how much I wanted to punch him in the face! What a self-righteous, pompous ass! And how dare he use the name of God to justify what he's doing to Jane. I though he was emotionally abusing her. I would love to dig further how people back in the Victorian era would have viewed St. John and his self-righteousness. I certainly don't agree with it, and I'm Christian.

I'm also questioning what the point of having St. John in the book, or rather, why he is that way to Jane. He could have been the kind clergyman cousin and that would have been the end to him. If Charlotte Bronte is trying to make a statement with him, I've completely missed it.

Another beef: I don't know why Jane has so little faith in Rochester after she runs away from him. She's constantly fearing that he has gone back to the continent and taken up with mistresses again. Does Jane really not know her man?

Overall, an enjoyable book. Next up, my reviews of the latest adaptation...

Ghostly Fun

Hubby and I went on the Haunted Vancouver Trolley Tour tonight. This is something that I've always wanted to go to. They only run this tour for a couple of weeks in October, so it's easy for me to forget about it.

However, I took the plunge and booked some tickets for tonight. It was really fun. We got to visit an old morgue where they did autopsies and an old cemetery. I didn't know that there were over 90,000 bodies buried there, and I drive past there every day on my way to and from work!

Our guide told us lots of ghost stories, grizzly murders and sad stories of how people had lost their lives. I didn't realize that Vancouver had such an interesting past!

IE 7

I haven't been posting for a while simply because my life's been very dull. I have some posts coming up, but they're long for me to type up, so you must be patient.

Anyways, IE 7 was finally released on Thursday, and yesterday, I downloaded it to my work laptop.

My reaction: meh.

What I noticed right off the bat was the font on some of the sites that I frequented changed, and not necessarily for the better. That annoyed me, and hints that the browser may still not be treating the CSS as it should be.

Tabs: big deal. Firefox and Safari have had them for a long time already. Actually, tabbed-browsing started with Opera, and I used Opera for a while because it didn't have the same sort of usabilty problems as IE. However, Opera crashed a lot, hence my switch to Firefox.

Security: from my perusal of the menu items, it seems to be better, but I'm playing a wait and see game. Someone had already passed around an email stating that a vulnerability had been found with Outlook Express. Sweet.

The only thing that impressed me about it (and I really wished that Firefox has), is that when you go to close the browser windown, it asks you if you want the tabs that are currently open, if you want them to be reopened again when you start up the browser. Some may not see this as a very handy feature, but I'm normally in the habit of closing my browser windows at the end of the day.

I hate to say this, all browsers so far, leak memory, and/or are memory hogs, and my poor, underpowered desktop normally can't take the abuse. Plus it saves me from having to re-boot too often. Plus, I normally have about 5-10 windows opened at any one time, so having them re-open again without having to bookmark all the time is a godsend.

Final verdict: we'll wait and see, but so far, not very impressed...

Weird Al

You know, I never realized that Weird Al is still going strong. A couple of weeks ago, he just release his 12th album. The local radio station played his polka remix from his new album, and I was double over with laughter, it was so well done!

So anyways, here's a blast from the past, one of the songs that I use to love a lot when I was a kid. Enjoy!

My foot's feeling much better

Today was the last time I had to see my physiotherapist about my foot, when I had put my cuboid bone out of alignment over a month ago. My physio gave me a clean bill of health, and gave me more exercises to do in the next few weeks to strengthen my ankle and foot muscles so this doesn't happen again.

While I've become a little afraid of my physio (he actually put a bruise on my foot that lasted over a week in my last treatment), I have to say that I admire his skill as he not only fixed my problem, but taught me prevention techniques (not wearing heels again would be one =P)

I've learned early on that if there is something physically wrong with my body, that I should take care of it right away. I learnt that lesson when I was working one summer during uni break as a receptionist in a physio office.

I remember very distinctly two patients who had similar problems: they both couldn't walk because they had sustain some injury. Patient #1 was a young teenage boy who had both of his legs broken in a car accident. Patient #2 had somehow busted both his knees while lifting something heavy at work, and had to go in for surgery. They both initially came into the office in wheelchairs.

After six weeks, Patient #2 was on crutches, and would eventually walk on his own as he did well with the treatment and his exercises. Patient #1 was still sitting in a wheelchair.

After a while, the physio who was treating Patient #1 decided not to treat him any longer and told the family so. Why? Apparently, this family had simply gone from physio to physio, allowing their son treatment from the physio, so that it could alleviate the pain in the teen's legs (apparently he was in constant pain), but wasn't encouraging him to do any of the exercises. The teen told his family that his legs hurt when he tried doing the exercises. I'm certain that they did, after weeks of not using his legs, his muscles wouldn't be used to being used again.

I remember distinctly the physio vainly explaining to the family her reasons for stopping treatment, and she didn't feel right to continue to take their money. The family wouldn't listen, and instead continue to coddle the teen and defend his reasons for not doing his exercises.

I left the job soon after that incident as I had to go back to school. That summer taught me that the body has an amazing capacity to heal itself, but only if you let it.

Royal Victoria Marathon

Here's hubby running the Royal Victoria Marathon. Sorry, don't know why the pic's so small... Blogger might be doing some image resizing.

You can't tell, but it was raining quite a bit that day. Soggy run for hubby.

KOOKY: Please kill me now..

No one told me when I started this job that I would become a lawyer. 50 pages of legalese. Blergh. And this is the second draft. Well, my only consolation is that it's down from 61 pages.

Read on...

YouDeserveATaxBreak.ca

I got this postcard at my gym the other day. Fitness Industry Canada is trying to get the Feds to give the people who actually pay money to go to the gym a tax break. I of course filled out my name on the petition.

However, does having a gym membership necessarily mean that you're getting healthy? How many of us let our gym membership run month after month without setting foot in the gym?

One of the step instructors at my gym is this nice, soft-spoken Japanese lady. She's soft-spoken, unless she's teaching class. Then she belt's out the encouragement. "Come on! Higher! Faster!"

One thing that she said this past Saturday at my step class that I didn't agree with was this: "In order to lose the belly, you must do suck in the belly all the time. This builds up the muscles in your core and flattens your stomach." This woman has two kids, and she's lost all her pregnancy weight, and then some. She's as skinny as a stick.

Like I said, I don't agree with this, not 100% anyways. She's also one of these people who can go on exercising for several hours (She teaches 3-5 classes each day she teaches, which is about 4 times a week, so that's about 12-20 hours of exercise). I'll be lucky if I get 3-5 hours at the gym a week. She probably loses calories faster than she can eat them. She seems to be the type that has really high metabolism. So the combination of less eating, insane amounts of exercise and a high metabolism, she's become all muscle and no fat.

If I only had that much energy and time.

Anyways, check out the petition: YouDeserveATaxBreak.ca

This is art?!?!?????

Yes boys and girls, this is art, as it is apparently in a art gallery, the Tate Modern in London. I was actually there three weeks ago, and saw that they were building something in that big space. I didn't know it was a slide. It looks fun, and I would have gone down it if it had been done when I was there.

But I don't know if it's art...

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I haven't been around the last few days as we were in Victoria. Hubby was running the Royal Victoria Marathon, and his time is 1 hour and 57 mins for the Half-Marathon.

It was a neat weekend as we got to stay at The Empress Hotel for the first time.

Life for me is slowing getting back to normal. Read: I'm continuing on with my school project, so it's more sitting in front of the computer typing out code. Well, I suppose I should be thankful for this chance to get my degree done, no matter how tedious and painful it may be. I have to keep reminding myself, that no matter what happens, this (by BCIT rules) must end sometime in 2007, (and not at the end of the year either, sometime much closer to the beginning of 2007). Bah.

Lost...

Lost Rules.

The Others are creeping me out big time.

Can't wait for next week's episode, I'm hoping they show what's going on back at the camp.

Production Testing

I don't know why people want to still do production testing with test servers, data and software. We know that the test works, now you need to see if the software actually works in production.

I'm writing some code at work that's suppose to interface with another piece of software. We tested everything, and it was fine. Now they want to test the code that I wrote in production. I'm okay with that.

What confounds me is that they wanted to test my production installation against their test environment. No, don't assume that you're production code is perfect. No code is perfect. It could be that there is something in production that is off-enough to cause a bug, but you didn't get that in test.

Idiots.

(Sorry for the non-techies that don't understand this, but I had to get this off my chest. Something that is relatively simple, and shouldn't have taken up a lot of time is made more complicated and drawn-out by jackassery, and a lack of communication. Bah.)

"So how was the food?"

Surprisingly, I got asked the question a lot when I came back from our trip.

What can I say, English food isn't the best tasting in the world (in my opinion anyways), and you certainly don't go there for the food, like you would, say Paris.

On our trip, wee had bangers and mash, fish and chips, Yorkshire pudding. And good old English breakfasts.

Anyways, I decided to dig up some references on British Cuisine.

Traditional British Food

What Wikipedia has to say

Finally...

My mom finally got her lost piece of luggage back. 7 days after we landed in Seattle. It was slightly wet.

We figured that her piece of luggage got into Seattle the day after our flight. The airport was supposedly to deliver the bag straight to my mom's door, but it sat at Sea-Tac airport for another four days before someone had the presence of mind to call.

Whatever. At least she got her stuff back.

Holiday: Scotland

Again, the weather was awesome, except for the last full day, when it was really rainy and windy. We stayed at the Cherry Tree Villa Bread and Breakfast, I highly recommend it. They cooked haggis for us for breakfast. I have to say it tasted like really salty fried liver pate. Haggis is normally boiled, and server with neeps and tatties (turnips and potatoes), so I have to try that the next time I go to Scotland. My sister also ventured to try black pudding. Urgh.

See Photos

Day One

• Fly into Edinburgh.
• Mary King's Close - really cool look at how people lived hundreds of years ago.
  

Day Two

• Edinburgh Castle
• Museum of Childhood
• Museum of Edinburgh
• Princes Street Gardens
• National Gallery of Scotland
• City of the Dead ghost walk. Read the write-up of the poltergeist. I was ready to pee in my pants! Good times!
  

Day Three

• Palace of Holyrood House & Queen's Gallery - yes, the Queen really lives here!
  
• Scottish Parliament building - it's an eyesore, and a thorn in the Scottish people's side, for more than one reason.
  
• Museum of Scotland & Royal Museum
  
• Greyfriars Bobby's grave
  

Day Four

• The Georgian House - how the rich people used to live in the 1800s
• People's Story
• Arthur's Seat - great views of Edinburgh
  
• Royal Mile, bought whiskey from the the Royal Mile Whiskey shop.
  

Day Five

Loch Ness and Highlands of Scotland bus tour

I have to say that this was the first bus tour that I didn't feel ripped off. Yes, it was 12 hours, and it was very tiring, and yes, I was on the bus most of the time. Plus, it started pouring rain, and I had to buy a baseball cap to keep some of the rain off.

We got to see Loch Ness, and tour the loch a bit. The captain of our boat was actually a marine biologist, and his research was on the Loch Ness monster. He even showed us some evidence as he had sonar and radar equipment on his boat. Pretty cool.

Other things of note on the tour: Urquhart Castle and lots of hairy coos and sheep. And we heard lots about William Wallace and Rob Roy and Mary, Queen of Scots (actually, we heard about them all over the place!) Our bus driver was very funny and told us lots of Scottish history and tidbits, which made things more meaningful.

***
All in all, it was a splendid trip. The next time, I would love to do a driving tour around Great Britian, and see some of Ireland.

Holiday: London

We had awesome weather in London, it was in the mid-20s the whole time was there, and didn't get a drop of rain! Here's the summary of our London leg:

See photos

Day One

• Fly into Heathrow
• Dinner in Chinatown
• Walk through part of National Portrait Gallery

Day Two

• Buckingham Palace
• Museum of London
• Sherlock Holmes Museum (I think this was a rip off, but my sister wanted to see it)
• Harrod's
• Thames Festival, really cool, and free for all Londoners

Day Three

• Rest of National Portrait Gallery
• Trafalgar Square - the Scissors Sisters had a concert here the night before.
  
• National Gallery
• Watched The Producers, the musical, very funny!

Day Four

• Natural History Museum, cool place for kids (as an aside, London Fashion Week was being held at the museum, however, the only people we saw were press nobodies, no famous people!)
  
• Hyde Park
• Tate Modern (I will never understand modern art)

I love, love, LOVE! London, and would live there in a heartbeat. But cost of living's too high (it's not the 4th most expensive city to live in the world for nothing), and I don't think I would be able to earn enough to live comfortably. Le Sigh.

Next stop, Scotland!

Jet lag bites

The reason why I didn't put up a post yesterday was because my jet lag was really getting to me. I had finally succumb to sleep at 8.30 pm last night, and even then it was a struggle to stay awake. It's about 8.30 pm right now (AKA 4.30 am), but I'm adjusting a little better, thanks to my 10 hours of sleep last night.

Some British terms that I've learned while on holidays:

way out == exit
way in == entrance
take away == take out
hose pipe == water hose
jumper == sweater
999 == 911
"mind" your head == "watch" your head (substitute as required)
car park == parking lot
push chair == baby buggy
trainers == sneakers
lorry == truck
bin == garbage can
rubbish == trash
"bin your litter" or "bin it" == throw your trash in the garbage can
hen party == stagette

I'm certain there's more, this is what I heard/saw the time I was there. I will have pictures and a trip summary, I promise, I've just been very tired. However, tonight will be CSI and then sleep!

The Scottish are smart.

I had two free drink coupons from Starbucks, and they both said that they were valid in the UK. Knowing that I was planning on a trip to the UK, I had purposely saved them for my trip.

My first attempt at using the coupons was in London. I was still trying to adjust to the time change when I decided to go into a Starbucks that I had spotted down the street to order my usual pick-me-up: Tall Hot Chocolate, No Whip. Don't ask me why a drink with warm milk wakes me up, it just does.

I asked the person behind the counter if I was able to use the coupon and I flashed it in front of her face. She barely glanced at it and said yes. I got my order and left.

(As an aside, I normally pay $2.92 CDN, this is after tax, for a Tall Hot Chocolate. In the UK, the same costs 1.99 Sterling, again after tax, and if you use the exchange rate of 2.1, that's about $4.18 CDN. You can see why I saved my coupons as I did. I blame the 17.5% VAT that is automatically included for the inflated price.)

My next attempt was in Edinburgh, on a day that was unusually warm, even for Scotland, so I decided to get a Strawberries and Creme. I walked into a Starbucks on the Royal Mile that I've passed by a few times.

Me: Can I get a Tall Strawberries and Creme, no whip?

Scottish Barista: You mean a Venti, right?

Me: No, just a Tall, thanks.

Scottish Barista: No, you really want a Venti.

Me: . Er, yes, I want a Venti.

See, smart, to make up for my brain fart, which I blame a combination of lack of sleep, the cold that I had since near the start of my trip, and weary feet from walking all over Edinburgh that day.

I saw a hairy coo!

So we're safely back in Seattle. The only major mishap was that Heathrow lost one of my mom's baggage, but it should show up eventually. We think it's still in London.

We had an awesome trip! One of the trip highlights was seeing many Highland hairy coos and sheep. I'll eventually post up my trip summary, it may not be tomorrow as I'm already feeling the jet-lag, and we still need to drive home to Lotusland and do loads of laundry, catch up with the work and school stuff that I've missed.

I'll leave you with a Scottish joke:

Q: There are 10 coos on the field. How can you tell which one is the oil tycoon?

A: coo-eight (Kuwait).

PS coo == cow

Tea with the Queen!

Yay! So we're finally going to go on our UK trip! I probably won't have much of a chance to go on the Internet the next 10 days.

Pray that my foot will hold up, that none of us will get sick and that there won't be any hassles with the airport.

Stay tuned for my UK update in a couple of weeks...!

Passing through Seattle...

So we're in Seattle right now. Tomorrow we'll be heading to the SeaTac Airport and on to London!

My sister spoke with BA, and they assured her that it would take max one hour to get from Terminal 1 to Terminal 4 at Heathrow. Plus, they will transfer our baggage to the connecting flight. So I feel a bit better.

Tonight we went to Jak's Grill for dinner. I highly recommend it, the steak was yummy. But anything cooked in butter will always taste good.

Getting Ready.

So tonight we've been frantically packing for our big trip. Tomorrow we'll be driving down to Seattle and staying at my sister's place overnight. Then Friday evening, we'll be on a plane headed to London!

We have possibly one minor snafu in the travel plans. We will be going to Edinburgh on the second half of our trip. From there, we will be flying directly from Edinburgh to Heathrow, and from Heathrow back to Seattle. We have a two hour window to switch planes.

Formally, we thought that we would have enough time to switch planes, but that was before the whole bombing scare. We have to sprint from Terminal 1 to Terminal 4. Anyone whose been to Heathrow knows how massive that airport is. Cross fingers that we will get there in time (or perhaps swing an earlier flight).

Because I have nothing much to say...

I found the Netherfield Ball scene for both the 2005 and the 1995 versions of Pride and Prejudice. I love the music and the imagery of the 2005 version (conversation is a bit stilted, not sure if it's on purpose or they were concentrating hard on their steps), but the 1995 version's closer to the book.

2005 version:


1995 version (see Jane bob her head):

BMW Films

This is my favourite BMW Film - Star. And yes, that's really Madonna.

(Sorry, it's a big file, so you may want it to load fully first before watching)

Resize Images

This tool is awesome! Every time you want to resize an image, you normally need some tool like Photoshop to do the dirty deed. I found this great site that will resize images for you, including making avatars.

I love the Internet!

This hot/cold thing BITES!!

Okay, I'm suppose to subject my foot to one minute of cold (0C) and one minute of hot (40C). I have had several people tell me that this is a good technique to help my foot heal faster, but I've never heard of this technique before. I'm not doubting the physio's and my friends word, I just don't understand how this is suppose to help my foot. Anyone care to enlighten me?

Oh, and pray hard that my foot will be well by Friday. Well, really Saturday morning, as by that time, we'll ben in London!

Heels: 1, Weed: 0

So last week I had managed to hurt my left foot wearing heels. I thought I'd dress up nicely for a change, seeing that it was my 4th wedding anniversary. It would have been okay, except I walked across campus in the heels. Not my brightest idea.

Before the end of the day, my left foot was in considerable pain, and not because of my foot rubbing against my shoe and causing blisters (I didn't get blisters). No, apparently, the cuboid bone (I think that's what it was, he was talking fast, despite my asking him to repeat it several times) in my foot was slightly out of alignment, according to my physiotherapist. What I could gather from him, because it was slightly out of alignment, it was interfering with some muscles and nerves, causing the pain.

Now my foot's all taped up, and I'm going to follow his instructions: alternate between hot and cold to help with the healing. I don't know how that will help, but I'm going to trust him. After all, I'll be going on vacation in a week, and doing lots of walking, so my foot better be better by then.

I feel like someone's beaten me up...

Finally, after another harrowing 11.5 hour day, it's done. My main user group was pleased as punch that they weren't harassed as much this time around (and that's saying a lot). They saw it as a success (again, that's saying a lot).

I had a barely standing application which I pretty much baby-sat for a two days, ending with a server crash. Sweet.

The whole ordeal for me lasted about 36 hours, minus about 5 hours of sleep that I did get. All that to fight against human nature: procrastination and last-minute-itis. Bah.

So to entertain you readers, here's someone interpretation of Gwen Stefani's song Hollaback Girl. This is somewhat amusing, or my foggy, sleep-deprived brain seems to think so.

T -20-ish hours...

And counting. It's 8.19PM, my day will end at 4.30pm, tomorrow. Yes, I'm counting down the hours now.

KOOKY: First day of school...

I hate today. Today is the first day of school. That means that students whose parents have paid for the BMWs, Mercedes and Z350s have parked their cars in my parking space in the parkade! Actually traffic wasn't that bad this morning until I got onto campus. It was then a 10 min wait to get to the parkade. Stoopid students have ultimately added 10 minutes to my commute.

Further, I refuse to go into the main part of campus for the next two week. Err, make that until the end of September, as I'll be on holidays mid-September. Just waiting for things to settle down a bit. I'll be hiding in my soul-sucking, windowless office in the basement until then (actually, it's not too bad down there, but I wish we had a window. The guys do freak out when the Midwifery people next door start making weird noises, ha!)

This week is also the deadline to put in your medical school application. I was absolutely appalled at how many people put in their application at the very last minute! It's like they don't really care whether or not they want to get into medical school! The thing is that not only do they have to have their online application filled out and fee paid, but they also have to have all their transcripts and other supporting documentation in by the deadline as well. The courier companies will be making a killing come Thursday.

In any case, not only do I get to work overtime this week (and not get compensated), I have start arranging for things for when I go on holiday. I'm also feeling a big blob as I haven't had a chance to go to the gym in the last week or so. First it's work, then I hurt my foot on Friday (my fault), but darn it, it still hurts!

Yeah, I'm a big whiner!

How to find someone on the internet...

Dumb Little Man proves just how easy it is to find someone on the Internet...

Cirque Du Soleil

The first time I'd ever watched a Cirque Du Soleil show was actually on a 3D screen, Journey of Man. I personally didn't like the film as a whole, but the acrobatics really got me hooked.

My favourite part was the scene with the two statues. How anyone was able to hold those positions for any length of time astounds me to no end. Yes the picture on the left are two human beings, and not inanimate object, and yes, they are holding themselves up using strength alone.

Since then, I've seen four Cirque Du Soleil shows: "O", Mystere, Alegria and Saltimbanco. "O" is my favourite out of the four. This one's a little different from the rest of the Cirque shows as about 2/3 of the show is done in water. I would pay money to go see this show again, and this show is not cheap to watch! Alegria is the favourite out of the tent shows.

I was poking around YouTube and found a few clips that were interesting (clips may take a minute to load):

"O" trailer:


Clip from Alegria (this is long):


Cirque du Soleil at the 2002 Oscars:

I'm in trouble now!

My Pride & Prejudice piano music finally landed on my doorstep yesterday. I was planning on spending pretty much the entire weekend doing homework, but temptation awaits!

As much as I was lukewarm about the movie, I loved the music. I'm afraid that my butt will be parked in front of my piano instead of my computer. Eep!

Okay Go

Many of you probably have seen this, but it's neat enough for me to share with those of you who haven't seen it...

Anniversary

So yesterday was my 4th wedding anniversary. Yay us! For those of you who weren't at our wedding, that's my cake topper on the left, which I made myself (ie bought the action figures, and glued them on a platform). I still love this thing, and it sits proudly on my desk for all to see.

We didn't do much, just went to Quattro on Fourth for dinner (it wasn't too bad, but I wasn't really all that hungry), then rented Inside Man. It was entertaining, and I give it two thumbs up. The story is laid out very neatly, and there is a twist at the end, of course. However, it's also a pretty forgettable film. Acting was good, but Clive Owen couldn't quite nail the American accent, so it irritated me a bit, and I really like Clive. I liked him much better in the BMW Films and in Gosford Park. Sin City, meh, I felt that he didn't fit the roll. Maybe he just shouldn't be doing films where he has to speak with an American accent. (I also saw him in King Arthur and Bourne Identity. King Arthur just wasn't a very good movie, and in the Bourne Identity, he was just boring.)

Hopefully now I can get a good night's sleep...

So I just dropped about $200 on a new ComfortPillow by Tempur-Pedic. In the past, and for as long as I could remember, I had always stuffed my blanket under my neck because I could never find a pillow that was supportive enough for my neck.

I had previously bought an Obus Forme Contour pillow, but didn't like it because 1) the shape of the pillow really bothered me. I tend to hug my pillow when I sleep, and this pillow was not conducive to hugging. 2) It felt too small and 3) It still didn't give me the support I was looking for.

I eventually tried out a Tempur-Pedic pillow about a month ago, and I'd really felt the difference between the Tempur-Pedic memory foam, and the other ones. I was pretty much sold at that point.

I spoke with a friend of mine yesterday who had a Tempur-Pedic contoured pillow, and she said that the pillow has lasted her five years with no wear. Her husband still sleeps on conventional pillows, and he goes through about two every year at about $30 a pop. If you do the math, the conventional route is actually the more expensive one.

Most mornings when I wake up, even if I've gotten my 9 hours of sleep, it's rarely restful. I wake up feeling tense (from all my stress), cranky and very tired. And trust me when I say I don't wear tired very well. Hopefully this will solve the problem.

We also tried the Tempur-Pedic mattress, and we've already decided that when we go to replace our mattress the next time around, it'll be the Tempur-Pedic mattress that we'll buy.

I'm not in a happy place right now...

$1,600 to fix my car!! @#$%^$# clutch!!!

Plus, they won't have my car ready until tomorrow. But I can't pick it up tomorrow because I have five @#$%^$# meetings and will be at work late. And by the time I'm done, the dealership would have closed.

I'm just going to go into a dark corner now and cry...

Wow...

For some reason, I find this fascinating. Must be the biologist in me. Of course, if it really happened in my own yard, I would be none too pleased.

However, you can't blame the caterpillars, they are only doing what nature intended them to do. It's just as natural to them as farting is to us.

(BTW if someone can identify the language, I'd appreciate it. I'm guessing Swedish?)

KOOKY: A day in

Well, it's not even 9 am when I got a bit of excitement at work.

First today is the 2nd day of orientation for the 1st year medical school students. As in years past, they are doing some sort of bonding within their pods by playing silly games. Today a saw a bunch of people running across the grassy knoll, grabbing a tennis racket, and spinning around with it, racket end on the ground, handle end on their foreheads. Yes, these will be our future doctors.

Anyways, walking past them, I went into the village where I saw some filming happening. I asked the guy in Starbucks what they were filming, and he said it was something with Halle Berry in it. Sure enough, after I walked out of the store, they started rolling.

So I saw Halle Berry walk across the street, and get into a Volvo FC90. She was in the car alone, so I suspect that the whole scene was her talking to someone on a mobile. But we'll see when Things We Lost in the Fire comes out next year (premise sounds boring).

I thought about taking a picture with my camera phone, but someone probably would have yanked it out of my hands. I don't do stealth very good.

Hate your mobile phone?

Hate your cell phone? Battery died on you in the middle of a very important conversation? Well you can get your revenge by joining to annual Mobile Phone Throwing World Championships, held every year in Finland, the land of mobile phones.

The official site lists this year's winners' throwing distances. It's interesting to note that they use the French notation of a decimal (ie, they use a comma instead of a period).





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Comment on Techology by Calvin

Don't you feel sometimes that technology has resulted in a "I want it NOW!" culture?

Calvin's dad certainly thinks so, and I believe that his thoughts certainly reflect End Users feelings.

Because people are so used to getting technology instantaneously, and at a fairly cheap price, people simply assume that if they ask IT for it, they'll get it tomorrow (sometimes sooner), at virtually no cost to them.

When in reality, what they are asking for will probably take months to plan, develop, test and deploy, and probably costs tens of thousands of dollars as well as thousands of man-hours to put it together.

And you know what the real kicker is? This is supposed to be completely seamless for the end-user. ie they will probably never see the blood, sweat, tears and countless of late nights (or cups of coffee consumed) to getting the project up and running.

See what Calvin's dad has to say....

Wigs for Dogs

Do people really love their dogs that much?








[Source]

Canada World Youth

So my cousin "S", who's 18 and just graduated from high school, decided that, instead of going straight into university, she would go and see a bit of the world first. She just left today.

She's joined a program through Canad World Youth, volunteering with others to help out in the community. First, she'll be going to Grandby, Quebec for 3 months. Right after that, she'll be travelling to Africa (Senegal I think) for another 3 months of community work. CWY strongly discourages meetings with friends and family, so she won't be home for the next 6 months.

S is a really smart cookie, she's self-reliant, and whatever she puts her mind to doing, she can go a long way. But she doesn't know what direction she wants to take yet (like most 18 year olds). Hopefully by being away from her comfort zone, she will learn to discover where her passions will bend towards and discover her own path in life.

Words fail me...

Apparently, Wenger, the maker of the Swiss Army Knife, has created a knife with every tool that the company makes. This certainly has to appeal to someone, and heaven forbid, Hubby may ask for it for Christmas...

Pluto fights back

So after posting about the sorry state of Pluto, there seems to be a bit of a backlash from the other astronomers who weren't present to vote on Pluto's demotion to a dwarf planet.

You can even find "Save Pluto" paraphernalia all over the Internet. So do your part to support Pluto, buy a bumper sticker.

Why?

Why do people put mayonnaise in hot dogs?

I just had a jalapeno smokie with mustard, ketchup, cheese and onions. They listed all these ingredients on the whiteboard. But they didn't include mayonnaise, yet someone had put it in. Bad on them.

My stomach is not in a happy place right now, and I feel like puking.

Happy Friday everyone!

Google walks around nekked!

I checked Google Analytics today. To the left is a map overlay, showing where each person who hit my site is from. The bigger the circle, the greater the number of people who have hit my site from that area.

There seems to bee a nipple over Alberta and over Ontario.

MI-5

I am soooo excited! Hubby and I love MI-5 (called Spooks in the UK), and finally, finally, A&E is going to broadcast season 4.

They're already on season 5 in the UK, and I thought I would have to subscribe to BBC Canada to hopefully see it, but we're holding out a bit longer to subscribing to digital.

"Mark's Very Extravagant Mother Just Sent Us Ninety"

Apparently now Pluto has be de-classified as a plant because a bunch of astronomers have redefined what a planet is, and Pluto just didn't make the cut. We only have eight planets, not nine.

Science is so fickle, they can't even make up their minds about this sort of stuff. I now have to unlearn everything I've learned about the Solar System. I feel double sorry for all the schools and students who have to buy brand new editions of science textbooks stating that Pluto is not a planet in our Solar System. All astronomy papers must also be amended, theories thrown out.

Really the only winners here are the people who sell this information. That's what you get for changing your minds all the time.

Another Pride and Prejudice spoof

This one is better done than the Harry Potter one I posted a little while ago. The TV show is Avatar: The Last Airbender...



After some digging around, I found the original trailer (sorry, not the best quality)

Scary...

This happened near my house yesterday. In fact, we saw the police blockade as we were driving by there later that evening on our way to a late dinner out.

It's really scary to think that something like this can happen near my house and during rush hour. I actually take that stretch of road to work in the mornings. My mom actually takes that route home after work, and thank goodness she left work late.

One of hubby's friends had a similar thing happen to him, only he was hit because he got caught in the middle of a police chase in the middle of Downtown Lotusland. Again during rush hour. Fortunately, no one was seriously hurt. However, how anyone would think that they would be able to get away in such a congested traffic area, I'll never know. I suppose adrenaline does things to you.

Anyways back to the accident last night. They had said on the radio this morning that she had broken up with him while he was driving. While he needs lessons in anger management, she needs to learn a few lessons in timing.

x != X

So I've been banging my head against the wall for about two weeks trying to figure out what was wrong with my code. Finally, today someone pointed out something so obvious, it's one of those things that you'd naturally miss, even if it punched you in the face.

What is the difference?

I ate a hash brown for breakfast?

I ate a hash brown for Breakfast?

Well, there's a capital in one and not the other. That was my problem. Depending on the language you work with, most programming languages are case sensitive, so the computer will treat them differently, even though they are the same to you.

Same, same, but different.

Pink is the new black?

Okay, I realise that all the examples in this post is from the same site, and the author of the site happens to like pink. I can live with that, after all, it's her opinion and her site. However, I don't like this trend of marketing pink things for the female market.

Marketing gurus out there: I love techie toys. However, I HATE PINK!!

Please do not insult my sensibilities by assuming your target consumer (ie, me) likes, or even want to buy something that's pink. The moment I see something pink, it turns me off from buying your product. Period.

Pink PSP
Pink RAZR
Pink DS Lite
Pink SLVR
Another pink RAZR
Pink Hello Kitty mobile
Pink headset (with diamonds no less!)
Pink Vertu
Pink Samsung E800 mobile
Pink Sanyo 3100
Pink Nokia N72 (My respect for Nokia has momentarily gone down the tubes when I saw this)
Pink PS2 Gaming Console

Okay, something a little more interesting...

Apparently, although this is rare, it is possible for your cervix to pop out during labour (called a cervical prolapse). It happened to someone on Hitched, and it took three tries for the midwife to shove it back in.

I am so not looking forward to this whole give birth to a kid thing...

What I Did Last Friday...

So I promised my friend PJ3 that I would do my best to post at least once a day if he would comment more.

This is going to be tough because I am really a boring person; I don't have a witty remark or intresting ancidote every day; in fact, sometimes it's hard press for me to think of anything to post. But here it goes.

So on Friday night, I went to River Rock Casino with a couple of my friends for some fun and frolecking. I netted a whopping $18.30 that night. Apparently, my game is Double Diamond, as I couldn't seem to win at any other one-arm bandit game. Good times.

Beta Blogger, Part 2

Okay, I'm beginngin to really like the new changes.

Spell check is really cool, and quite effortless! Words are highlighted and you just have to right-click to change, if you so desired.

I managed to get my web tracking back in, so we'll see if it does work

Template changes are a snap, and I'm so loving the widgets! Apparently you don't need to push out template changes any longer. Once you hit "Save", they are already there. Cool!

Star Trek Convention

I really, really, really want to be here this weekend. Every captain will be there, except for Captain Picard. Sigh.

Why am I not there? Money. We're going on a big trip next month, so I have to save up. But more importantly, no time! This weekend will be homework weekend, once again! Boooo! (BTW, for those who witnessed my crying jag over the weekend, I'm feeling much better!).

It's their 40th anniversary, so you know there's going to be lots of people (they're predicting 20,000!) and lots of stuff happening. My sister and I went two years ago, and it was fun, but kooky. (And I thought I'd never wear jeans in 40C weather in Las Vegas!) My sister tried talking me into going this year, but unless she does my homework for me, I'm planting my bum firmly in my seat in front of the computer.

Hello Kitty Mobile

This is for my friend in Calgary who loves Hello Kitty. Yep, they now have a phone... [Source]

Beta Blogger

So I'm trying out the new Beta features of Blogger right now.

Things I like so far:

• You can now label posts
• Template changes are much easier
• They've included widgets for easier template changes as well as edit options right on the blog itself.
• Side bar widget, template edits and WYSIWYG editor uses Ajax (the geek in me is happy)
• The ability to restrict who sees your blog. (not that I will for this blog, but it's nice to have that option).
• Single sign-in credentials using my Google account instead of keeping separate sign-ins for Blogger and the rest of Google-land.
  

Things that I'm not too impressed about.

• The template change removed my tracking, and I can't access the HTML yet. I'm hoping that will change soon. (I can go back to my old template, but I'll see how I like the changes first)

So far, so good...

KOOKY: Choosing a new boss

I'm in a unique position at work: I get to choose my new boss.

So my old boss had decided to take on another position. While I'm glad for him, that just means that things are kinda at a stand-still operationally. Don't get me wrong, things are still getting done, but it's a "wait-until-the-new-boss-is-hired-before-we-start-anything-new-and-revolutionary" situation.

What's unique about this is 1) I've never had to interview a boss before. Peers yes. 2) How many places allow peons to choose their boss? Not many. So I'm trying to make the best of it as I can.

I had volunteered to be one of the people to be on the selection committee. Needless to say, it's been interesting so far. Trying to define what I want as a manager, how to go about choosing that person, and defining what is best for the team is not easy: people have different ideas and different priorities. Trying to find someone to fit that criteria is even more daunting.

I'll let you know how things turn out...

I'm a cheap drunk

Apparently I can't hold my liquor. I had about 1/6th of a glass of white wine for dinner, and this was after I ate my food. I now have a pounding headache, my face is blotchy red, my skin's itchy, and want to curl up and go to sleep.

Hello Kitty Aficionados...

It seems that the Sanrio folks have come up with the ultimate Hello Kitty: A signature Hello Kitty figure with a Paris Hilton look. Unfortunately (or fortunately), it's only available in Japan, but if you're patient enough, I'm sure one will show up on e-Bay before long.

If this is not the way to immortalize Paris Hilton, then I don't know what would do it. And think of all the things that you can do with your Hello Kitty Paris Hilton doll...

[Source]

For all the Corrie fans...

KOOKY: Prostates

The following is an actual conversation that took place between DC, IT Plumber/Janitor and myself. IT Plumber/Janitor had posted this on his blog, but frankly, it's a really boring retelling, and the humour of the moment was lost. I am here to rectify this (please note this is a gross paraphrase of the actual conversation, we were too busy laughing)

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I've always thought that only men had prostates. Last Thursday, IT Plumber/Janitor dissuaded me of such a notion....

IT P/J: You know, even thought we work for the Faculty of Medicine, you'd think that discussions of bodily parts would come up more often. I learn about lots of things while talking with some researcher in the hallway of the Prostate Centre.

Weed: [Nagging about how men should be going to see their doctor now to perform annual checkups because the things that causes the risk and diseases that men develop later in life, can actually start in their late 20s, so it's a good idea to start measuring a baseline of health while he is still healthy. After all, you're IT guys, you too would be frustrated if you didn't know what state the system was in before, and would be frustrated with trying to catch problems early too, but the end users wouldn't tell you that's there's something wrong, correct? Nag, nag, nag]

IT P/J: The thought of working with a roomful of guys with smelly fingers, leave that job to the doctors.

Weed: Well, it's a good thing women don't have prostates for a doctor to check.

IT P/J: Actually, I was told by a doctor that there is a cluster of tissue (in the female) that has very similar cells structure as male prostate. It is commonly known as G-spot. I guess that also explains why some guys get off on getting their prostate massaged during "certain situation".

DC: [Doubles over in laughter] You just confirmed what I already knew.

[Hilarity ensues]

Blueberry Pie!

Today a bunch of us went to White Spot for lunch. While they try to make themselves out as a gourmet establishment, their food is pretty middle of the road. (They have some really bad, cheesy TV commercials with Rob Feenie, who owns Feenie's and Lumiere, and John Bishop, who owns Bishop's, a few very poo-poo restaurants in town). However, White Spot is known for some favourites, one being their blueberry pie.

Yes folks, it's blueberry season right now, and Lotusland can churn them out by the truckload. They're plump and big and oh so yummy!

I had a huge slice for dessert for lunch, and boy, was it ever so yummy! It was more like blueberry, with a side of pie. Really! So I got the brilliant idea to buy a whole pie for dessert for our Star Trek Marathon that we had tonight. Definitely a hit! Yum!

Blueberry with a side of pie!



A mountain of blueberries!