General

An April apology

I’d like to apologize to the spambots and others who accidentally visit the site and found the April posts to be almost exclusively about jogging, a subject which is not the easiest to make entertaining without the inclusion of runaway trains, circus animals or other fictional inventions. Note that I am not saying runaway trains and circus animals are fictitious, just that they remain make-believe during my jogs, which is really for the best. A pair of train tracks parallels part of the trail at Burnaby Lake, so a runaway train could be a real nuisance on a run.

For May I promise one non-running post for every running post. If I stick to my jogging schedule this means there will be at least twelve tantalizing, non-running updates.

The excitement starts…tomorrow!

Note: excitement not guaranteed.

Freedom, terrible freedom: Day 3 report

I know I said I would sum up things at the end of my time off.

I lied.

This is what I did on Day 3:

  • unloaded the clean dishes from the dishwasher
  • loaded the dishwasher with dirty dishes
  • did laundry
  • swept the living room and kitchen
  • cleaned a toilet
  • dusted
  • walked to the mall (about 5 km), bought underwear and t-shirts
  • helped prepare dinner
  • played some Minecraft

See? I totally know how to relax and enjoy vacation.

Freedom, terrible freedom

Starting on Saturday (yesterday) I began a 10 day vacation, the first real time off I’ve booked from a job in years. My goal is to return more relaxed than when I left. I am not traveling, I’m just hanging out and trying to, as they say, chill.

I’m beginning to think I may have been better off going somewhere. It’s hard to truly relax and feel vacation-y when you’re at home and all the usual obligations keep staring you in the face. Sure I can ignore them but the guilt kicks in automatically. It’s just the way my brain works. My guilt gene is highly developed.

Regardless, I’m determined to do some fun and accidentally productive things like:

  • gaming
  • reading
  • writing
  • running

It’s true I’d do most of these things, anyway, but now I’ll be doing them with extra gusto and no transit passengers to bug me.

I’ll report back on where the relax-o-meter sits eight days from now. Exciting!

Post #1,000: More random nonsense

I spent some time thinking–several long minutes–over what to write for the one-thousandth post of this blog.

Should it be something deeply profound and insightful? Haha, no. I’m not about to take the blog in some bold, new direction.

How about a list? I love lists. This was very tempting but collating a list about the blog, such as links to “the best my brain could come up with” posts felt too much like work and a random list didn’t seem worthy.

A haiku? They’re fun and simple. But lazy, really. Doesn’t this milestone deserve something that takes more than a few seconds to dash off? Probably not, but I can pretend it does.

After mulling these three ideas my several minutes of thinking was over and here I am.

I now present all three below. What tremendous blogging value I give to the several people accidentally stumbling across the site because I wrote “Zachary Quinto naked” into this post.

Something deeply profound and insightful

I don’t actually have anything for this but take a look at this Wikipedia article on the Observable Universe and try wrapping your mind about how big it is, how small we are and just what the heck is out past the part we can’t observe, anyway? I say space monsters.

[box title=”A list of the 10 most-used tags on this blog in a fancy box” box_color=”#329242″] 59 he’s got legs
57 random stuff
46 he’s got (tired) legs
40 Africa hot
33 random thoughts
32 stupid ankle
28 damn snow
27 National Novel Writing Month
27 book reviews
27 weather you like it or not[/box]

This list demonstrates several things, leading to a bonus list (but not in a fancy box):

  • I’m obsessed with my legs, admittedly the sexiest part of my body.
  • I’m also obsessed with randomness. What is the difference between random stuff and random thoughts? A good question.
  • I complain about the weather. How trite and predictable. Expect more starting this summer.
  • I’m determined to write novels in 30 days or less.
  • I am at least semi-literate, having read and reviewed several books.
  • I am not above puns or terrible wordplay.

A haiku about my blog

What to write each time
A never ending challenge
No naked Quinto

Hello blog

I have a rule I try to follow when it comes to posting on this blog and that is to not just air complaints. Sometimes (sometimes more than sometimes) I break this rule, provided I can make the complaint with style or insight.

It is not easy.

But complaining, that is easy. Delightfully easy.

But I resist, because lists of complaints are kind of boring to read.

I hope to be posting more often soon. I know at least several spambots are excited about this.

Not a sex ad

Admit it, you see the same thing I do when you look at this EVGA ad:

(Hadrons are subatomic particles)
(I’m not going to define the other word you and I may have seen at first glance)

March shmarch

Obligatory post on the first day of the month.

Environment Canada is reporting that March will likely be cooler than normal for most areas of the country. We have the possibility of snow in the forecast again.

However, things are looking up on several other fronts, so I am cautiously optimistic than this month will be better than the cruel mistress that was February.

I will start the month with a semi-hopeful haiku:

March enters the scene
Spring is close enough to see
Snow is forbidden

My thoughts on the Internet from March 6, 1996 (warning: kind of dumb)

Personal journals are always an embarrassment of riches. No, that’s not quite right.

Richly embarrassing. Yes, that’s it.

As I’ve mentioned previously I kept a journal for a short time in 1996 (age: 32) and on March 6 I had this to say about the Internet:

Meanwhile, I’ve got a two month trial membership on Mindlink and I’m trying this whole Internet thing out. While it’s great for e-mail, the World Wide Web (WWW) is, as an information source, kind of like leafing through a magazine which has pages that can only be turned every five minutes. In a word, slow. I’ve already found files on the Web and then switched to Mindlink’s BBS to download the file in half the time it would take to get piped through the Byzantine host of servers on the Internet. Although it is immensely popular and overhyped (see Time Capsule Note, above), I think the WWW is something that will truly be practical and convenient at about the same time video phones are practical and convenient. When hell freezes over, you say? No, but give it another five or ten years (remember, the video phone is one of those ideas that was thought up decades ago that still has not moved one inch closer to being an everyday thing. This, in comparison to other devices that have become common sights in this end-of-century world we live in: baby machines, personal heli-cars and robot servants to clean up after us.

Yes, I called it “the WWW” and predicted it would be practical in 5-10 years instead of realizing I just had a crappy ISP and a dial-up connection to match. Two years after this was written I got my first cable modem and learned that the Internet actually stayed on all the time!

While we still don’t have baby machines, you have to admit that personal heli-cars would be a terrible idea. Look at how poorly people drive in two dimensions, never mind adding a third. And we do have robot servants now if you count the Roomba.  We just needs dozens of other special purpose robots now that vacuuming has been automated.

In conclusion, my ability to predict the future, especially when it comes to technology, is pretty spotty.

I was right about the 8-track tape being a dead format, though.

Cost of renting Close Encounters of the Third Kind: $97.96

A short time ago I lamented that in the bounty of our digital age where there’s no need to keep pesky physical inventory sitting on store shelves or in a dusty warehouse I could not find anywhere online to rent Close Encounters of the Third Kind and the only place selling it was iTunes for $17.99. At that price you’d think it was an ebook, ho ho.

In the end I found a Blu-ray version for purchase at Best Buy for a mere $9.99, not much more than a rental.

I just needed a Blu-ray player, an HDMI cable and an HDTV to watch it. Luckily I already had the TV.

The rest, once taxes and the you’re-killing-the-earth fees were added brought the total to $97.96. A little more than a rental.

But it looked very nice and the Sony Blu-ray player adds to the growing list of devices we can use to watch Netflix on. I’d make a joke about how you’ll be able to watch Netflix on your toaster soon except some company is probably prototyping that as I write this.

Oh, and the movie holds up nicely, too. I’ll write more on it later but I love the way Spielberg portrays kids as insane, monsters or insane monsters.

The ties, though. You could have picnics on those things.

Book review + Twitter generation = bubble wrap

Here is a review of a hardcover book from a user on amazon.com:

The cover is pretty scratched up and it was late arriving. However, the packaging was geat, lots of bubble wrap to keep it safe.

I think “geat” might be Scottish for “pretty all right”. I shouldn’t blame Twitter and its billions of users for this sort of review as it could have just as easily appeared forty years ago as today. I’m also not sure if this is a troll or something from a very literal-minded person, but I kind of like that this is a succinct review of the actual physical object and not the words contained within.

And hey, if you need lots of bubble wrap, this could be the perfect gift for you or someone you love.