Okay, it's a wrap!

I've made the tough decision to officially retire this blog of mine. I won't be posting any more entries on any of my Blogger sites in future.
I've gone on to other interests and this site sits here waiting for me to return to it. This final post brings this blog to a close. I enjoyed blogging here, and hope to do more of it in future on other topics that interest me. I debated keeping this blog active and posting whenever, but I'm being realistic. I'll probably start a new blog again when I get off the procrastination couch, but it will be over at Wordpress or I may even host my blog on my own site. Lot of what ifs I know, but who knows what the future holds.
Thanks to all who have enjoyed the short life of this personal expression of mine.
Peace.

Home after the holidays

I've just returned from one of the best holidays I've had in a long, long time.
My family toured Upper and Lower Canada during the summer. The area we travelled to includes Toronto, Montreal, Quebec City and Ottawa.
It was a very stress-less time and we really enjoyed ourselves.
I'd never been to either Ottawa and Quebec City and I wonder why I'd never thought to visit them before. Both cities were unique in their own way and I plan to go back in the future to explore them further.
Old Quebec City had wonderful charm that captivated us during our stay there. It didn't matter that it rained on us, since that really added to the atmosphere of the place. I'd say that walking down the rain-soaked cobblestone streets to visit the many old buildings and cathedrals in the old part of town was the highlight of our entire trip.
I love the province of Quebec and we also enjoyed our stay in Montreal. I even had the chance to meet up with an online friend while we were there!
I had been to Quebec years ago when I was younger, and at the time I wasn't impressed with the province or the people there. Something about my visit and the feeling of stuffy superiority made me vow not to return there. I am so glad that I changed my views and that we made the trip. Words aren't enough to show how much I enjoyed it.
Photos may help however. Here are some photos from our stay in Quebec city.

PDA Blogging

Testing out blogging software from pocketblog.com.
It allows me to blog using my pocket pc.
This will allow me another way to access this blog of mine.

Fallen by the wayside

It's sad when I see blogs that I enjoy reading and that I visit daily, suddenly stop posting and slowly fade away. I still check back on them and hope that the blogger has started reposting again to the blog so that I can continue to enjoy what they have to say.
It seems that this blog has fallen by the wayside as well. I've neglected it and seem to have lost focus with it. I don't feel like posting as many photos these days. Maybe it's because I'm not taking as many photos as I was in the past. I'm not that worried or concerned about all of this, as this is just a humble blog that I started for my own amusement. I don't expect that many people pass this way, and I'm sure the few that do, don't return. That's fine with me, as there are so many excellent blogs out there to spend quality time with. I'm not sure what the future of this blog will be. If you enjoyed reading any part of this blog, leave a comment so that I may be motivated to keep it going for those who visit.

Sorry GoogleAds..there's no room for you here

I recently had the lame idea to try Google Adsense on the site here. I signed up with google and supplied them my blog information. Ads popped up at the top of my blog almost overnight. I didn't like the look of them and how they made this humble blog look, so I've removed the script that makes them appear. If you have similar feelings about Google Ads on your blog, here's the steps to removing them. I took this information directly from the Google site with some minor editing by me.

If you're using a Layouts-enabled blog, simply click the edit link for your AdSense page element, then click the Remove Page Element button.

If you are using a classic template, please follow the steps below:

1. Sign in to your Blogger account at http://www.blogger.com Template tab
2. Click Edit current
3. Locate the AdSense ad code within the template code. The code will be similar to the sample code below:
   
   script type="text/javascript"
   !-- google_ad_client = "pub-0000000000000"; google_ad_width = 728; google_ad_height = 90; google_ad_format = "728x90_as"; google_ad_type = "text_image"; google_ad_channel =""; //-->
   script type="text/javascript" src="%20http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js
   
4. Select and delete this ad code and save your template
5. Republish your blog to see the changes.

1. 
   

I don't plan to run ads on this site in future as I like the idea of keeping things simple. I imagine that blogs are like tv shows. Whenever a commercial ad comes on, I reach for the remote and change the channel until the ad is over. Blogs could be viewed the same way. Ads may be driving people away from some sites. I've seen some that suffer from ad overkill. If you visit enough blogs, you'll know what I'm talking about.

Ubuntu for the masses

I received a package in the mail today from Ubuntu. I had requested free Linux CD's a while back for the new version of Ubuntu that was released this month. I opened the package and found 3 CD's (2 for x86 systems and 1 for 64 bit PCs). They also threw in some Ubuntu stickers to customize my PC if I desire to. If you want to order your own free Ubuntu Cd's, just head over to this site and sign up. https://shipit.ubuntu.com/
It may take a while to get them however, so be prepared to wait. I wasn't that patient waiting for them. I didn't think they'd arrive, so I went ahead and burnt myself a copy of Ubuntu that I downloaded from their site. I burnt the DVD this week and the package arrived today! How's that for timing. I haven't had a chance to install it just yet, but I did test it out as a Live CD and I'm impressed.

Scanning for life signs

This blog has been neglected lately, for which I'm sorry. I'm still procrastinating about starting a new blog on another site with Wordpress, and everytime I start working on it, I get called away without making any real progress. I'm still not sure if it will ever see the light of day.
I'm happy today, because the scanner that I bought off ebay arrived today. I'm still trying to figure out the best way to scan transparencies. I've made a few attempts, but I'll still have to tweak the settings a bit to get the colour and contrast to my liking.
Here's a quick sample scan that I just made. It's from a trip I took to Thailand years ago.

New links for your ears

I was asked recently by someone how they would go about finding mp3s or how to listen to music online. Okay, the person was not that net savvy, so I offered her a site that I visit often. I'll share it here along with a couple more sites for you to discover.
The first is called Pandora Internet Radio
I should point out that it's a site that was intended for US listeners, but if you have a hotmail account, you can log in if you're Canadian. They've recently begun blocking users from other countries. Check their May 3rd blog entry for more info.
The second site is a new discovery for me as well. It's a brand new radio site from slacker.com
It has a nicer interface than Pandora, but they are similar in the way they serve up music.
Last up is Live365
which I used to listen to years ago before internet radio was well known. The site has channels with various topics, so you can pick and choose which station you'd like to listen to based on your personal tastes.

The future of Internet radio is unsure. Royalty rates for these broadcasters has skyrockted and a concerted effort in the US has sprung up to raise public awareness and get people to take an active role there in getting congress to reverse this ruling. See http://www.savenetradio.org/
and help out if you can.

The Chef is in the House

Tonight was a fun night. Our church organized a dinner dance and I was the person in the kitchen running the show. There were almost 200 people that showed up for dinner, and the small crew that were assembled in the kitchen really had to hustle to get all the food cooked and served up on time. I delegated the job positions of the volunteers, while I cooked the main dish of Spaghetti and Meatballs as well as the vegetables.
Everything ran extremely well and all that came had a great time.

I'm back to working the night shift again this week, so I didn't get much sleep yet, but I feel good that I was able to do my small part in raising money for our parish.
I would have like to take a few photos, but I was extremely busy during the dinner rush, and I didn't want to risk dropping my camera in the tomato sauce!

Rush to Work, Rush to Home

I headed off to work early this morning as I always do. I'm usually out the door by 6:30am long before my family is awake. Today was no exception.
I was on my coffee break at work when I received a message that my wife was urgently trying to get a hold of me. I gave her a call and find out that my daughter is at school and has been vomiting and having serious cramps.
I quickly go to my boss and inform her that I have to leave to pick up my daughter from school. As I head out, I find out from my wife that she has contacted our neighbour to have her drop by the school to pick up our daughter. I get home just as they pull up to the front door too. My daughter looks fine when I see her, but she is physically drained. I give her some Advil, and she goes to lie down where she falls asleep in no time.
I'm sure that everyone at work is wondering what happened to me, as I left fairly quickly without saying goodbye to many there. My mind wasn't on the job at that point, but was preoccupied with all kinds of thoughts and it was flying to the school ahead of my body, as I'm sure it would have for most parents.

Beta tester post#2

If you liked my recent post on beta testing, then you might be interested in a couple of MMORPG games that have opened up for beta testing.
The first one looks like it will find a greater audience as the title needs no explanation or introduction. It's an online game based on the world of The Lord of the Rings. I've already tried out the beta and it looks like it will be an amazing adventure. Hopefully, the virtual world doesn't get spoiled by all the tweeny-boppers that inhabit these online communities these days. Part of the reason I don't play online games. I just don't have the reflexes or the patience to deal with the immaturity of most online players. The beta test download will allow you to play at least until the game goes on sale on April 23rd.
I haven't yet had a chance to install and review the second game, but I'll mention it here as it is another beta. It's based on the Conan fantasy world created by Robert E. Howard. I may give it a shot, but I have my reservations about this one.

Infrequent postings and a free gift

I find that time flies by between my posts these days. I want to post something here daily, I really do, but with other things to occupy my time I find my posts don't come as often as I like. I admire those that can commit to maintaining a daily blog.
Below is a free PC software link for a cool desk app I've installed recently. It simulates a Mac-like dock on your desktop. Have all your favorite programs and icons available for you in an attractive 3d-like window. Go to the site and watch the video to get a better idea of what it does.
Punk Software - RocketDock
I love finding interesting software online. It's an added bonus when it's offered up for free! Let me know if you come across any software that you think I might enjoy.

Calling all Beta Testers!

Beta testing has always held a strange fascination with me. It kind of feels like being invited into a top secret club, with a special V.I.P. pass reserved for the elite. It's not the easiest thing to get invited to. I managed to a chance to beta test Microsoft Office and Vista long before they both launched. It was a lot of fun to see the changing stages of development as each new beta was released for testing. I also recently beta tested Norton Security's latest venture called Norton 360. I found the software very buggy (which has to be expected), and the early betas were not that compatible with my system. I uninstalled it and started trying it again, just before it was released. As a thank you, Norton gave a select few, (I was a lucky one as well) access to the RTM version as a free download.
I'm currently beta testing Adaware 2007. If you've always wanted to be a beta tester, then here is the link at Lavasoft, to register to be a beta tester. Not sure how long this link will be active:
Adaware 2007 beta
Adaware is a great program for scanning your system for spyware. If you've never tried it, then head over to the Lavasoft site and download the free version.
Just keep in mind that beta software can sometimes play havoc with systems and could end up screwing up your OS forcing you to do a complete reinstall. So don't blame me if something goes wonky with your PC. That's part of the fun of beta testing!
It would be even more fun to be a beta tester for console games. Anyone have any idea how to participate in that kind of testing?

Blogmarked bookmark #1

I have so many sites bookmarked, and a few that I feel that I should share with you. I'll be adding a favorite bookmark of mine every once in a while on this site.
The first one is a site that I've found called Game Giveaway of the Day.
If you visit the site each day, you'll be presented with a game that is normally a shareware/retail game that you must pay for. However, if you download and install that game on that same day, you get to keep the game for free! Granted that not everyday will offer you an exciting game, but hey, it's free. Just visit each day, and you're sure to find a few games that might interest you. They have an archive of past games so you can get an idea of what's been made available in the past. Lately there have been many varieties/versions of Araknoid/Breakout games and several childrens games as well.
If the game doesn't interest you, then have a look at their sister site, Giveaway of the Day where you can find applications and utilities to make your computing life easier.

Waiting to Wii

What does someone have to do to get a Wii these days?
It seems that they're still hard to come by at the stores..in fact, I've given up looking for them a loong time ago. I'm not the type to stand in line for hours or days to get one. If it's not in stock then I'll be patient. Last time I tried getting one about a month and a half ago, I was told that stores would have plenty of stock by April. Well, it looks like Nintendo has played an April Fools joke on those of us that don't have one yet as I haven't seen a single one in stores or even in bogus Future Shop ads. Those are the ads where they show an item in the flyer, but that item is no where to be seen within 100 miles/kilometers of any of their stores. Sorry, but I haven't fallen for that ploy for about 8 years now, since you suckered me into your store with the promise of a very low priced hard drive that didn't exist. Best Buy, you're just as guilty, so don't look so smug.
Anyway, back to the Wii. There's a contest on this website called Uneasysilence that is giving away a Wii, no questions asked. There is one catch however, which is why I'm writing about my Wii experiences. If you want to find out more, then check out the contest. You have till April 6th to enter.

"Where have you been"?

Someone asked me where I went to, but unfortunately, I can't say that I went anywhere exotic or mysterious lately. I've been busy however. I recently purchased a laptop and am getting it configured to my liking...well, maybe not to my liking, since I bought it for my daughter who has been using a run-down P3 desktop for far too long. The P3 was on its last legs, with parts failing one by one. Its old DVD drive is dead and the failing memory is causing all kinds of problems there. The laptop I bought is not new, and shows that it still has power to spare. It's a Compaq V2000 which I picked up on ebay. It's a Celeron M, which now makes it the fastest computer in the house. My dream of owning a Core 2 Duo will sadly just have to stay a dream for now.

We had a bit of a crisis at home recently as well.
It seems that our fireplace/chimney has had enough of all the rain and storms we've been having here lately, and has decided to let some of the rain in on us for a change. That means that our living room floor has become a bit of a swamp this past week, and I've been scrambling to get the problem solved asap. Today the workmen were on site repairing the exterior, while I spent the last couple of days removing and replacing laminate flooring. What fun!
Most of the work is done now, but I'm waiting to see if we spring any more leaks before I totally complete the interior repairs. Mr. Chimney might still have some leaky surprises in store for us yet.

Blogging adventure

It can now be stated as a fact that now in 2007, there are more blogs online than there are Internet users. I myself have three blogs and am in the process of starting up a fourth one. I love surfing the net at random and discovering new blogs and I also enjoy the journey I take to find them. I visit several blogs on a regular basis, some of which I have added links to on this page. I recently started clicking on Links pages of various blogs and from there clicked on their links and so on. What a blogging adventure that can be. I discovered quite a few strange and quirky blogs during my online travels. Another way to find new blogs and make contacts with bloggers is via a site called MyBlogLog. I'll be adding to my links page as time goes on, and feel free to post your own link in the comments and I'll be sure to visit it as well. As for a photo today, since surfing for blogs is similar to window shopping at the mall, here's a shot of a couple going by a "hello kitty" type of store. I can almost read the mind of the guy as the woman slows down to check the shop out...

Rain, Reading and Refreshment

It's been a rainy weekend.









What better way to spend the day than a trip to the library.
My daughter convinced us to head downtown to the central branch, since it's been a while since we visited. The Vancouver library main branch is a unique structure. It's appearance is similar in design to the Roman coliseum. It's a great architectural masterpiece for the city. I love the design and the layout of the place. We spent the afternoon there and checked out several books before heading home.

We stopped off at Casa Gelato on the way home and treated ourselves to some delicious gelato which would have been a perfect way to chase away the rainy day blues, but we had no blues today. It was a great way to spend the day.









Our last stop was at a Japanese supermarket where we picked up some supplies including some sushi for my lunch at work tomorrow.

I've provided some links and some photos so that you can retrace my steps and spend a virtual day with me as well.
And you don't even need to bring your umbrella!
Enjoy your Gelato!

Linux 1 -- Microsoft 0

I've reinstalled Ubuntu about a dozen times in the last few days. Literally. With each new install and my experimentation, I find that I screw something up and have to reinstall. I also find that I learn a lot more in the process, so I don't mind all. I want to get a comfortable level of knowledge with Linux and also with the console. I do find that the installations go a lot smoother than it would if Windows was under the hood.
I've even installed Kubuntu now on my daughters computer in the hopes of minimizing our use of Windows. I don't think we'll be able to go cold turkey just yet, so both systems are dual boot for now. I'm still learning how to get everything operational, and I haven't attempted to hook up my camera yet, so no new photos to show you. Even the old ones I have are stored on the Windows partion, and I'm having too much fun with Linux to boot it.

Work and Play

I'm posting this from work at the moment. It's 4:06am which means that I'm working the night shift again. I really don't mind working graveyards that much. It's been exceptionally quiet tonight and hope it stays that way until 7am. This gives me a chance to update this blog!
I managed to screw up my home computer yesterday. I had recently installed Ubuntu Linux on the hard drive, because I've been meaning to test drive the software for quite some time now. Installation was a breeze and I had the system up and running in no time. I installed a few extras to enhance the features, and I even spent some time getting to know how to use the terminal to type in commands. The one part of the installation that didn't go smoothly, was that although my ATI graphics card was detected, I couldn't change the screen resolution higher than 1024x768. I spent some time trying to figure out how to correct this problem, and found others with similar grief. In the end, I found step by step instructions, along with a repository link for the files I'd need. All I ended up doing was killing the software. I was left staring at a blank screen.
Not all was lost however. After years of computer use, I've learned a trick or two. I turned off my computer and switched hard drive cables around. You see, before I installed Ubuntu, I had disconnected the hard drive with Windows XP on it. I installed Ubuntu on my 2nd hard drive. When the screen blanked, I just plugged the cable back in and my Windows XP loaded up just like it's always done. Now I have to figure out how to repair Ubuntu if I can, otherwise I'll have to reinstall it all over again. I liked the look and feel of it, and I'd like to give it more of a chance before I decide if I like it or Windows better. I may end up settling on a dual boot option, as my wife likes to use MS Excel and Word occasionally. She's never been as fond of Open source as I have.

Orange you photogenic

I haven't even turned on my camera for a week! Am I suffering from the winter blahs? I don't think so, but I can't say for sure. I just haven't been inspired to capture anything lately. The last photo I took was last weekend. My family went out to the local mall, because my wife and daughter were both getting eye exams. I brought the camera along just in case.
This juice store we popped into was overloading the orange colour sensors in my brain, and I pulled out my camera and fired off a shot while my daughter picked out a drink from their menu. The drink was just so-so, but I like the way the photo turned out.

Digg revisited

I've been visiting digg.com for some time now and love to find interesting and strange news/links on the web. I've found another site that's similar to digg, but offers me something that digg doesnt; a chance to win a prize. The site is called Digital Journal.
At first glance it looks similar to digg with topics submitted by members and others can post their comments on those topics.
Readers of my blog will remember that I won an MP4 player a while back, and I posted some photos of it here.
Since then, I've been entering online contests that I come across in the hopes that lightning does strike the same place twice. Well, Digital Journal is offering anyone a chance to win a prize of either an Xbox360 or a Dell Computer. Check out the site for more details, and watch out for that lightning.

A Look Back

The first computer that I used was way back in high school in the seventies. It was a typewriter style terminal that we entered our programs into and the data was transmited to the local university where their large computer did the computations for us. We didn't see the results until the next day when a delivery arrived to our school with all our results. If there were any errors in our programs, we'd have to start all over again and wait another day again to see the results.
I've been surfing the Internet since the early days of MS-DOS and dial up modems. My first real powerhouse computer was a 286 IBM compatible computer. It had a whopping 16 MB hard drive and a 5.25" floppy drive. I bought and installed a 14.4 modem later on and I remember the first time I used my modem. I had come across a phone number of a local modem Bulletin Board and dialed them up to find out what it was all about. I found an active forum, some file downloads and a few more phone numbers to keep me going. I was hooked. I joined several BBSs' in the area and there was a couple of times that I dialed a long distance number to access some remote BBS that offered something I couldn't find locally.
I take my broadband connection for granted these days, and get a bit frustrated when the load time on my browser takes longer than several seconds. I've forgotten about those long overnight downloads I used to endure to download the latest shareware demo of some new game.
The Internet has grown a lot since I first logged on, and I can't even begin to imagine what the future will bring. How will we access all this information in say 20 years from now. Your guess is as good as mine.

Scanning for a scanner

I have a ton of slides and prints that I have taken over the years, that I would love to convert to digital. I've been searching for some time now for an affordable way to convert them and still retain their quality. True film scanners are way too expensive for the amount of slides I own, and the flatbed scanner types probably wouldn't do a good enough job to satisfy my needs. I have an old Visioneer scanner hooked up to my old computer. It will only work with Windows 98, which is why I haven't used it on my main computer.
The other day, I pulled out some old photos, and out of curiousity, I scanned them to see what I would end up with. I uploaded them to my webspace, and was able to retrieve them on my computer. Here are a couple of birds that I saw while I was in Australia, including a Kookaburra sitting in an old gum tree! I also scanned a photo of me hiding in a baobob tree. The photo quality on the old scanner isn't too bad for blogging, but I know I'll need a better one for my archival purposes.

Ah hem, testing one two three. Is this thing on?

Recently, I was asked if I would be willing to help out a small game company with some voice-over work. They are a small group based in Romania, and were looking for native English speakers for their project. I agreed to lend a hand..er voice. I sent a demo recording which they liked, and I was provided with a script to read. I recorded it using Audacity and sent them the finished copy. I'm not sure when the game will be released, but I'll post more info here when I receive it.

Computer guru to the rescue

My wifes nephew came over the other night with his new laptop. He just wanted to learn how to burn photos onto DVD. He has a Sony Vaio with all the bells and whistles. I noticed while we were burning the photos, that his new computer was running a lot slower than my old desktop. I did some probing around and found that he didn't have any active anti-virus software installed or running on his system. We hooked up to my signal wirelessly and I downloaded and installed a few antivirus/spyware checkers. I ran all the checks and by the time I was done, the software had found 147 threats to his system! Here are the links to the software I used in case you too are in need.
Antivir
Adaware
Spybot

Gonna get me a flying car

It's just a coincidence that yesterday I posted a photo of traffic in the city and today I find a couple of articles about a flying car coming in the not too distant future.
I've been talking/dreaming about owning a flying car for years now, so when I saw the links for it online, I quickly surfed over to learn more.
It seems that there is an actual company in Israel working on this exciting concept. They already have a working prototype and hope to have them operational and up for sale by 2012. You can read more about the X-Hawk on their website or watch the sample video here. The line for the flying cars starts directly behind me!

Here's a humourous video with two guys sitting in traffic talking about a flying car. The beginning of the video sounds like things I've been saying for years.
"I gotta believe that there's somebody else out there thinking about the flying car besides me, somebody who's not afraid to throw their hats over the wall for the good of mankind...If more people threw their hats over the wall, we wouldn't be sitting in this mess right now, we'd be zooming over it in a flying car." The video gets crazy when the passenger tries to find out how far the driver would go to own his very own flying car. Weird, but good for a laugh.
edit: (Video Rated PG-13 for my younger readers)

Hitting the road?

Well, I've made the decision and am in the process of creating a new blog on a different site. The site provider is Frihost and I'll be using Wordpress as my blogging software. Everything is new to me and I've got a lot to learn. I'm taking my time getting it set up so that I get it all configured properly. I'm finding that I like Wordpress a lot more than Blogger. I've also installed it on my computer as well to learn more about its features.
I don't plan on abandoning this site however, as the new blog will be for a totally different purpose. I'll still log on here every so often to post a photo and leave an update on what I've been up to.
I seem to have recovered about 80% from my vertigo, and am actually looking forward to returning to work.
The photo above was taken at dusk as the fog was rolling into town last night. I had the ISO setting up to 800 which explains the graininess of the shot. I love this intersection at this time of day, as you can see a long line of rush hour traffic backed up for as far as the eye can see, right into the city. I love it because I'm travelling in the opposite direction. After taking the photo, I was home in only a few minutes.

Health has left the building

I went to my family doctor today for a follow-up visit for my vertigo. I should expect symptoms to last at least a week. My head feels like it's been in a vice the last few days and I have dizzy episodes at night as well as when I'm getting up in the morning. I've been taking medication to quell the nausea I'm experiencing as well. Aside from all this, I feel great!
My daughter was home from school today as well, because she is battling the flu. My wife was saying that she feels like she's coming down with something as well.
At least we will get this sick cycle out of the way all at the same time.
I didn't take any photos today so I thought I'd experiment a bit more with creative photography using a photo I took at Sunday's soccer game.
If you like the effect of my Soccer Planet, then check out the tutorial where I got the idea from.

Sick, Soup and Soccer

This weekend was not one of my better ones. I should have been at work this weekend, but due to illness, I spent all of Saturday in bed. I slept for 24 hours, getting up only for the washroom and some homemade soup. I couldn't stay up for long because I was having dizzy spells coupled with nausea.
I was stable enough today to venture out to see a doctor. I was diagnosed with vertigo and prescribed some medication to help with the symptoms. I always associated the word Vertigo with an old Hitchcock movie in the past, but doing a google search brought up lots of information on vertigo.
The weather today was sunny and cold, a great day for soccer, and I was up to seeing my daughter play the first soccer game of the year. There had been a long break in the season due to the lousy weather we had last year.
Below are two pictures: one from the game, and a blurry one taken while waiting with my wife at the pharmacy for my drugs.

Tilt shift miniature fakes

I've been experimenting with creating fake miniature environment photos. There are several websites online that give detailed instructions on how to create them. If you'd like to give it a try, then check out this tutorial.
I've tried a few experimental photos, and found that, for me, the ones that gave the best results were taken from while looking down at the scene at an angle. I don't have many photos like that, so now I must give myself a new photo assignment that will allow me to find opportunities to shoot some photos of things from above so that I can experiment a bit more with this technique.

Oh, how I love shopping!

I hope you detected a bit of sarcasm in the title to todays post. I usually find any excuse to escape from this activity. It just bores me to death, as I'm sure it does for most males. However, yesterday was different. We all decided that it would be a great day to go to Richmond to look around. Shopping in Richmond for me is a bit different than hate shopping and will your average shopping excursion. The sights and sounds of the area make me feel like I've been transported to another land. The population of the area is prodominantly Asian as are all the stores and restaurants. I'm usually the only white guy there, when we stroll the malls in Richmond. Don't look for a Taco Bell or Orange Julius in the food court either. That would be too foreign here.
We found an interesting store called Daiso where inventory is imported from Japan and every item costs only $2! We'd been there a few times before, and we always find something to spend our money on there.
My daughter also found a Japanese book store in the mall that sold tons of Anime/Manga books. The place had her practically drooling in the aisle, since she stated, "I've never seen this stuff for sale anywhere else".
We shopped, had lunch, lost our car in the carpark, found it after a bit of a walk, and then headed home. Overall not a bad day for someone who usually hates shopping.

Frozen Cacti

We've had freezing temperatures for the past week. I remembered that I had a couple of plants outside that I had forgotten to bring in. I went outside to check them, but sad to report, they didn't make it. I still have a few plants that have survived them.

I've never had much of a green thumb, so I'm surprised that the few plants I have left have survived as long as they have. The types of plants I now own do better when neglected, than if they are pampered. If you're not having luck with plants, then get yourself some cacti and jade plants and leave them alone for a while. You'll find out like me, that they're doing great on their own, and that the flowers have started bursting on them all.

Blogger is a Clogger

I think it may be time to hit the road around here.
This Blogger account has been acting weird lately. Load times are increasing slow and there are a few glitches as well. My post from Wednesday was duplicated three times in a row for some strange reason. I've deleted those posts. I've had this blog for almost two months now and have learned quite a bit about blogging and the blogger community. I've discovered quite a few great blogs out there that I read regularly, and have gotten some ideas from them that I'd like to implement on my own blog. I'm thinking of moving my online thoughts to another blog provider. I'm leaning towards Wordpress or Livejournal, but haven't made up my mind yet. Until I decide, I'll continue to post here. Anything I create will be for my own consumption and amusement, but if you have any advice, leave a comment or email me. I'm open to suggestions.

Weather you like it or not

Todays weather caught me by surprise. The snow began falling last night, but it got really heavy by this afternoon. By the time I went to pick up my daughter around 5pm, the roads were almost completely covered in ice. As we rode home, I tried to stop at the top of a hill and the brakes had no effect. I slid part way down the hill stopping only because I hit the sidewalk curb. It's a good thing that there wasn't anyone around or I would have had an accident. I made a u-turn at the hill, as I knew that with the ice, I wouldn't be able to negotiate the hill safely. We drove home by a different, safer route. I spent a couple of hours shovelling and salting our townhouse complex before dinner. I was keenly aware of the news reports that the emergency wards were filling with people who were hurting themselves shovelling snow and slipping on ice. I was extremely careful while shovelling and made sure I took not to put too much strain on my back.
My Internet service has been sporatic today as well. I wasn't able to log on earlier, and even now the Internet seems to be very sluggish on my computer.
The worst of the snow is over for now as I type this, but the temperature is supposed to drop down to -6 overnight. Hopefully tomorrow isn't going to be as bad. At least I picked a good time to take holidays from work.

Taking a break

I've finally gotten a break from work. Last year was a busy year it seems. I had started working at a new place, and was unable to take many holidays due to work shortages and the fact that most holiday times were already taken by those more senior than me. I accumulated lots of overtime as well that I banked through the year. My boss told me that I should use them up as they don't carry them over from year to year. I could have chosen to get paid out, but opted for some time off. I'm now off this week and really loving it! Although I'm not getting a chance to sleep in because I'm driving my daughter to school, and my wife to work each morning. I'm surprised that they didn't get me a cap and a T-shirt that had 'Chauffeur' written on it this Christmas. However, after dropping them off, the rest of the day is ALL mine.
So far, I haven't done much of anything. Everyone should take a do-nothing holiday once in a while!
I've put all the Christmas things back in storage and now it seems like there's a big gaping hole where the tree was. I'd love to rearrange the room, but I'm on holidays right now.
We have a high definition TV and I've watched a couple of movies. I've caught up on emails and surfed the net. I'm currently planning a wood project that I'm creating for my daughter. I'm only in the design stages for now. I was going to head down to Home Depot to buy some materials, but never made it. Details of this project will probably show up in a future post...if it turns out, and I'm not ashamed to post the final outcome. I'm not that skilled with woodworking, so this will be a real experiment on my part.
I practiced a bit on the guitar as well today. I'm self taught on the guitar and I've also self taught my ears not to criticize what they hear. My ears are on holidays too..I didn't want to torture them too much, so I didn't play for long.

The juice is flowing

Our electrician phoned to say that he had time available to drop by today and finish the wiring job.
He quickly showed me how little I know about electricity. It was nice watching an expert at work.
He quickly cut some holes in the drywall to fish through the newer, larger gauge wire through the walls from behind the stove and back to the breaker panel.
Everything went well, and we soon had our stove plugged in and pushed into place. A quick test confirmed that all the elements and range were working! We're having a hot home made meal tonight!

It's cool, but can't say the heat is on

Our appliances arrived today! The delivery went smoothly. The workers took the old and left the new. We had an electrician friend drop by to install the connection for the stove. Here's where we ran into some problems. The old wiring is 10 gauge size and we need to have size 8 to operate the larger stove. He has to return to run a new cable from the main box to the kitchen. Since he's a part time electrician (on his off hours from his regular job), he'll try to make time to fix it next week, as he didn't have everything he needed today. It was a bigger job than we all anticipated. When we get it working, we'll be able to test out the convection oven and all the electonic digital settings for ourselves. We'll have to be patient for now and make do with our toaster oven for fixing our meals in the meantime.
The fridge is working perfectly. Just plug and play. Play is exactly what my wife has been doing with it so far. She's been marvelling over it's features. She's been busy arranging the shelves and putting food away, each with its own designated space.
The appliances are both stainless steel made by LG. We got a great deal on them so I couldn't refuse buying the stove too. Here are the photos I promised, which show off the new additions to our appliance family.

The suspense is killing me!

How much longer must I wait?!
I waited all day for the new appliances to arrive today. In the end, I got a call from the delivery driver saying that they would not be able to bring them today. One of the workers got hurt and the snow was slowing them down and putting them behind schedule. He promised me a delivery tomorrow and will call again to confirm. I had already disconnected everything from the kitchen, so we ordered pizza for dinner tonight as the place is in a shambles right now.
I've also got an electrician coming by tomorrow to install the stove electrical plug. The old stove was hard-wired directly to the stove, which I don't think is allowed anymore, bylaws being more strict nowadays than they were 25 years ago.

Our New Years Disaster

This Christmas season has been a busy one for me. I worked graveyard shift right through the Christmas week. I also worked New Years Day as well.
Our New Years Eve plans did not go as planned. We were supposed to go out and usher in the New Year at our friends place, but changed our minds when we discovered to our horror, that our fridge had stopped working. We spent a couple of hours in a panic, moving some food to our chest freezer downstairs and throwing out the bulk of the food that had thawed out and was spoiled in the fridge. I wasn't going to take any chances with getting food poisoning.
New Years Day I went to work, while my wife went shopping to find us a new fridge. I joined up with her after work and we searched the remaining few stores that happened to be opened that day. We did manage to narrow our search down to a couple of models we both liked and I made plans to return the next day to talk to the salesman.
So, today, after some wheeling and dealing, I bought a matching fridge and stove for our place. I was lucky enough to get them at the commercial discounted price rather than retail due to a referral from a friend, who put me in touch with the sales person.
What you see to the right are the dead and dying appliances that we currently own. These are both at least 20 years old. The stove's clock and timer stopped working a couple of years ago. I prefer to use our small toaster oven rather than this poor excuse for an oven. You can't even see the fridge with all the magnets and stuff we've added over the years! Is it a fridge or a bulletin board?
They'll be delivering our new appliances on Friday, so I'll post some pictures of the new ones when they arrive. So you'll have to tune in then to see what I ended up buying. You'll be impressed when you see them, I'm sure of that!