Friday, September 17, 2010

v40.1: Avast Me Hearties

Howdy folks,

-slurp-

As some of you know, this weekend on September 19th is International Talk Like A Pirate Day.  As a special treat, I've installed a plugin that will convert the entire site over to Pirate Speak.  If that's not your cup of tea, fear not, I will disable the plugin after the 19th and all will be back to normal again.  If you're celebrating this festive day along with us, make sure you raise your bottle of rum, adjust the patch over your eye and let out a loud resounding YARR.

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Cheers,

Al

Thursday, September 16, 2010

v40.0: Getting Back to Reality

Howdy folks,

-slurp-

I have a problem.  This isn't a problem anyone can really help me with but I figured I'd bring it up anyway since I'm probably not the only one with this problem.  My problem is with Reality Television shows.  Now I'm not a huge television watcher but when the television is on at our house it is usually Tree House TV (young children's shows) or Reality TV with the odd movie here and there.
Reality television is a genre of television programming that presents purportedly unscripted dramatic or humorous situations, documents actual events, and usually features ordinary people instead of professional actors.[1] The genre has existed in some form or another since the early years of television (primarily with game shows), but has expanded significantly since the series Big Brother first aired in 1999.[1] Programs in the reality television genre are commonly called "reality shows" and often are produced in series.

Of course Reality TV isn't ALL bad.  Take, for example, "Ice Road Truckers".  If it hadn't been for that Reality TV show, I wouldn't have known it was dangerous to drive a huge rig over frozen water.  Who really thinks about that?
Fred: Hey Bill, let's take this fully loaded 18 wheeler weighing 40 tons out onto the frozen ocean!
Bill: You sure that's safe?
Fred: I hadn't even thought of that, how much weight can ice hold?
Bill: ....

There are a lot of other life lessons I've learned over the years of Reality TV.  I'm sure most of you can relate:

  1. Having a baby can hurt and sometimes have complications

  2. Men and Women can fall in love and have their feelings hurt

  3. Traveling all over the world is considered a race if there are others doing it too

  4. Cutting down big trees is dangerous

  5. Some people have a lot more kids than I do

  6. Policemen chase criminals and arrest them


Thankfully we have Reality TV to tell us these things otherwise I would have been lost.

-slurp-

On a more serious note, why the hell do we have these shows anyway?  Yes the may provide a certain level of entertainment but is it the right kind of entertainment we should be subjecting ourselves to?  Coming back to my example of "Ice Road Truckers", would you watch a show where people drove big rig tucks on ice and nothing happened?  Probably not, there isn't much point in watching trucks driving on ice if there wasn't something there to make it interesting.  What if there was a commercial for an upcoming episode of "Ice Road Truckers" where someone died because their rig crashed through the ice?  I bet you'd watch it then.  Why?  Because we've been twisted and deformed mentally by the evil that is Reality TV.  No, that isn't very fair, Reality TV isn't "evil", it's sick.  What would you think if someone followed you around every day with a camera recording your life in the hopes you got hurt or died?  The average person's day-to-day life is fairly boring and not very interesting but when they get hurt or die, the ratings sky rocket!

I won't go into these hundreds of other Reality TVs shows out there today like the ones where people sit and watch brides to-be pick out a dress.  For the love of God, it is like the shopping channel but instead of you looking for something to buy yourself, you're watching someone else buy it.  I am having a difficult time understanding how someone can justify paying money to make a show about absolutely nothing; they are either very smart or very dumb.

I digress of course.  Reality TV has brought some good and there is something to learn from some of the shows out there.  Take a show like the "Worst Handyman" series.  They teach you a lot of important tips on doing things around the house while you get to watch people screw it up.  Not only is it informational, but it is funny to watch as well.  Same goes for the "Worst Driver" series.  I know a lot of this "think" we know all the rules of the road but there are some lessons on that show that I didn't know.  Let me throw a question out there.  Without looking it up (information these days is too readily available :) ), who has the right-of-way in a merging lane?  I was surprised to learn the correct answer to this question and I learned it on "Canada's Worst Driver".  There is also another show that I do like to watch on occasion that is borderline.  It is called the "Cake Boss" and it is basically about a bakery in New York that bakes and decorates these amazing cakes for different events.  They do show you how to make a lot of cakes and they give people a lot of great ideas for making cakes themselves.  Of course a television show about people making cakes sounds terribly boring so they have a camera crew following these guys around day after day and make episodes where mishaps happen.  Again, we watch the episodes because there is going to be a cake falling over, but at the same time there is something to learn so that is why I consider this show borderline.  Thankfully there are about 100 shows about cakes now so if I'm ever really bored and want to watch a cake fall over, there is a fairly good chance I can turn on the TV just as a cake is falling over.  That's sad.

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Well folks, I think I've mused (ranted?) enough about Reality TV.  At the end of the day when you're tired from working or whatever you did that day, sometimes it is nice to sit in front of the TV and watch mindless entertainment like this.  Just don't let it go to your head and stop looking (hoping) for bad things to happen to people, it isn't right.

Cheers,

Al

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

v39.9: IGOR! Yes Master?

Howdy folks,

-slurp-

It is starting to look like we're in for another hurricane here in the Atlantic provinces of Canada.  Hurricane Igor, which is currently a category 4 hurricane, is projected to make its way up the Atlantic and could possibly hit us here in Nova Scotia.  It is obviously still too early to tell where it will end up, but there is a slight chance it could make it this far north like Hurricane Earl did.

I find it interesting how they come up with these names for Hurricanes.  I'm sure most of us know already that hurricane names are picked out ahead of time and they alternate between male and female names each year.  If a particular hurricane causes extensive damage (Hurricane Katrina for example), they retire the name and it is never used again.  If you're interested in seeing the list of hurricane names for the next 5 years, check out this site.

Some of you may have remembered me talking about my 5 year work anniversary gift I ordered a few weeks back.  Well it finally arrived today.  Unfortunately, I was a little disappointed to have to pay a brokerage fee when the item arrived at my door step.  Perhaps disappointed isn't a strong enough word.  I was pissed off!  I've spent 5 years at this company and I've put in a lot of time and effort into my job and never have I asked for any kind of reward or recognition for my efforts.  I realize getting a gift for n years of dedication and service is something above and beyond for a company to do for an employee, but if they are giving gifts, please for the love of God make them gifts so the employee doesn't get the shaft when it shows up on their door.  Of course I could sit here and bitch about it all night long, but I really don't have the energy to waste on dwelling on it.  I put forth the question to my boss as to whether there will be a reimbursement for my "loss" and he pretty much told me I was SOL, but he would escalate and maybe I'll get it back.

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So I'm betting you're all wondering what I ordered?  Well, this bad boy is the Kitchen-Aid 7qt Stainless Steal slow cooker!  It retails for around $199 at Sears and has food temperature alerts, programmable digital timer and a host of other features I've been anxiously looking forward to using.  I enjoy making stew in the slow cooker for the family, but with the family growing and the slow cooker getting smaller (or seemingly so), it was time to upgrade and when this rig showed up on my 5 year rewards, I didn't even think twice about ordering it.  Now I can cook stew for the entire family and have left overs for another day.  I plan on putting this thing to use on Saturday and have some stew cooked and ready for family members for when they come over to our place Saturday night for some drinks and games.

Speaking of which, my sisters and their significant others will be coming by Saturday and I'm looking forward to a great evening of family, friends and fellowship as we partake of some beverages of the alcoholic variety and have some freshly cooked stew and snacks while hunched over the kitchen table playing poker.  Yeah, Saturday night is going to be a good time I think. :)

Well folks, it is getting late and I have a few things I need to get done tonight before heading to bed.  Tomorrow I am working from home because of a Dr's appointment my wife has so hopefully I'll have some time during the day tomorrow to write.  I really need to get back on the wagon with writing or I'm going to be in bad shape when NaNoWriMo starts up again in November; another thing I'm looking forward to.

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Take care my friends and remember to always check under the toilet seat before you sit down.  I heard a story one time of a lady who failed to check under the toilet seat and was bitten by a spider and died.  True story, it was on the Internet :)

Cheers,

Al

Monday, September 13, 2010

v39.8: Butting Out

Howdy folks,

-slurp-

It has been awhile since I've posted anything new.  I've been wanting to post but either I've been too busy when I thought about it or just didn't have the energy to sit and write anything meaningful.  Sometimes I struggle with finding new things to talk about that are interesting and meaningful.  After all, Blogs are supposed to be interesting right?

-slurp-

I received an email from my mother this weekend; she has finally decided to stop smoking again.  I am happy to hear this despite the fact I will missing going for a smoke with her when we visit.  Growing up my mother smoked and I remember her sitting in the kitchen with her friends sharing laughs and socializing over cigarettes.  I used to get my mother to make these "frogs" out of her cigarette package.  I couldn't wait for her to be finished her pack so she could carefully fold and shape the package into something that slightly resembled a frog (at least to a 5 year old anyway) and when you pushed on it just so, it would hop around the table.  It's interesting to think that back in those days, it was completely acceptable to smoke with your child in the same room (or in the car) and it was common for parents to send their children to the store to buy cigarettes for them (along with milk, bread and other various things).  I don't recall ever buying cigarettes for my mother, but I do remember going to the store a lot so it could have happened.

Shortly after I turned 8 my mother butt out and stayed off the cigarettes until shortly after her and my father separated.  It lasted about 10 years.  Of course divorce can do strange things to people and I don't blame my mother one bit for going back to smoking after the divorce.  I don't know if I was fated to smoke or not (I always liked the smell as a child) but when I was 22 I started smoking.  I smoked until December 2005 when I finally decided to quit; I had quit for just over 3 years and started back up again.  Let me just say that nobody is perfect and whether you're addicted to cigarettes or something else, there is still an addiction there.  Usually people who quit smoking try to find something else in their life to be addicted to.  Since there is a regain of appetite after you've quit, people tend to get addicted to food; putting on a lot of weight (like I did when I quit) and in the end feeling bad about themselves.  Others get addicted to sporting activities and working out; not a bad thing, but again it is still an addiction.  I don't want to sit here and talk about addictions because people are addicted to many different kinds of things.  Whether an addiction is bad or not is relative and not always the same to everyone.  Yes cigarettes are addictive and yes they will cause lung cancer and other various problems but they don't affect everyone in the exact same way.  I'm not trying to defend my smoking to anyone and I will definitely quit when I'm ready, when my mind is in a place and I want to stop smoking.  That, my friends, is the key to quitting an addiction, your mind.

My youngest sister bought me a book awhile ago called "Allen Carr's Easy Way to Stop Smoking".  This book doesn't focus on the fact you need to quit smoking because it is bad for you, it focuses on getting your mind right with quitting smoking.  Quitting cigarettes isn't the simple act of stop smoking, there is a whole other piece many people fail to see.  My sister quit smoking a number of years ago after reading this book and hasn't had the urge to smoke since.  I quit in 2005 and I felt the urge to smoke the entire time because my mind wasn't where it needed to be to truly quit smoking.  I still haven't read the book (Sorry Megs) but when I'm ready to finally butt out for good, I will be reading the book and then I will be thanking my sister for the wonderful gift.  After all, not everyone is the same right? :)

There are also alternatives to smoking.  No, I'm not talking about the gum or the patch or the pills.  I'm talking about something known as eCig or E Cigarettes or Electronic Cigarettes.  I had no idea these devices existed and I'm glad my mother forwarded me a link to one such product.  I did some research on these eCigs over the past couple days and they seem like a really good idea, even if you're not ready to quit smoking yet.  Basically, they are like an inhaler.  You have an electronic part (a rechargeable battery) that connects to a device which contains some kind of solution which can have nicotine or not in it.  You can also get them flavored with such flavors like chocolate, cherry, grape and a lot of other varieties.  I don't know about you other smokers out there, but when I put a cigarette to my lips, the last thing I expect to taste is passion fruit; it doesn't seem right.  These product contain to be completely harmless and eliminate 99.9% of all the harmful chemicals you get from smoking cigarettes.  They are basically a simple flavor vapor that you inhale (just like a cigarette) and the act of smoking feels almost identical to the real thing.  You can even order regular tobacco flavoring if you're really missing that authentic cigarette taste.  These things also boast that there is no smell and you can smoke them virtually anywhere.  It may be possible to smoke them anywhere, but I'm pretty sure if I pulled one of these out while sitting at my desk at work and I started "smoking" it, there would be a few looks and probably a trip to the boss' office to "talk" about proper office etiquette.

These devices usually start at around $50 for a starter pack and can go up to the hundreds of dollars.  The "refills" usually cost between $1 and $2 each and are the equivalent of 15-20 regular sized cigarettes.  Since the average price of a pack of cigarettes is $11 here, that can be a savings of $9-$10 a pack if you smoke the eCig exclusively.  There are some downsides of course.  I couldn't find any place local that sells them which means, unlike cigarettes, you can't just run out to the nearest convenience store and buy them.  In some cases, the only way to get them is to order them online which can take time for delivery.  Not the kind of thing you want to do when you're down to your last refill cartridge and your order is a week away.  I guess you could be more proactive and order a bunch at first and ensure to always have a weeks supply on-hand, but who has time in their busy schedules to worry about "inventory" for their eCigs? :)  I can hear my sister's thoughts now, "Or you can just quit and not worry about it at all!". ;)

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Anyway folks, it is time to wrap things up here.  I hope you all had a great weekend and have a great week.  To my mother, keep it up, stick with it and I hope you succeed at butting out for good.

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Cheers,

Al

Saturday, September 4, 2010

v39.7: Post Earl Excitement

Howdy folks,

-slurp-

Well, we just had Tropical Storm Earl pass through today.  I must say, it wasn't much of a show other than the car parked by my balcony looking like it was going to flip over when the wind gusted.  I haven't heard much in the way of damages around the city and a drive to the store later today didn't yield much.  There were a few broken trees and a broken fence but other than that it looked like any other storm.

Yesterday I went out and picked up a new laptop.  I definitely shopped around for this one and I'm glad I got it.  It was a little more than I was initially going to spend, but it will be worth it in a few years.  It is a Dell Inspiron 1546.  It sports a nice AMD Turion X2 Dual-Core Mobile 2.2GHz CPU and has 4GB of RAM.  The hard drive is a bit on the small side at only 250Gig, but thus far I'm only using 20% of it with Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit, a bunch of other pre-installed applications and World of Warcraft (over 20Gig by itself).  The 15.6" display is brilliant and the back lit LEDs are gorgeous.  The video card is no slouch either (for a laptop), it has an ATI Mobile Radeon HD 530v with dedicated 2Gig of memory.  I've owned laptops before but this is the first one that had a dedicated video card; those shared ones are such a pain.  This thing has full HD capabilities yet only comes with an 8x DVD R/W drive.  Of course it has all the other bells and whistles like webcam, 3 USB ports, SVGA port, 7-in-1 media card reader and much more.  The price tag was not too bad and it was on sale for $100 off.

Of course I'm writing this musing on it right now as I sit in the comfort of my living room watching television.  Oh, and the thing is very light as well, only 5.8lbs (2.64kg).  I'm really looking forward to getting some use of it this fall, especially this November when NaNoWriMo starts.  Yes, I will be taking part again this year and I have every intention to achieve the goal this year.  I have some great story ideas floating around in my head so I'm getting a bit excited about November and being portable.

Well folks, it is getting late and for some reason I couldn't sleep last night (must have been the post celebration blues) and was up at 6:30AM completely exhausted but couldn't bring myself to sleep any more.  Don't you hate it when that happens?  To my mother, I'm really enjoying that "Snipping Tool".  It makes getting images to embed into my posts a whole lot easier.  Thanks for showing it to me!

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If you lived in the path of Earl this week, I hope all is well.  I'll see if I can dig up some pictures tomorrow and post them so you can see some of the things that Earl did (bad boy).  Take care all and have a safe Labour Day weekend!

Cheers,

Al

Wednesday, September 1, 2010

v39.6: Back to School!

Howdy folks,

-slurp-

If you're a parent with children still in school, you're probably just as happy as I am that they are going back.  I'll never understand why they make the kids go back before Labour Day.  What is the sense of going back to school for a day or two only to have a long weekend?  I'm sure there are reasons behind it, but like most things, don't make a lot of sense to most of us.

I haven't had a lot of time to actually sit back and write these days.  Summer has busy for us and we've been doing quite a bit as a family.  The past couple weekends found us in the South Shore visiting family which was nice.  We don't get a lot of chances to go out of town to visit family so it was a treat to be able to do it two weekends in a row.  I'm sure my mother was thrilled to have us there.

We're being hit by some freakish heat wave here in Halifax.  Yesterday it was 32C, today was 33C and tomorrow they're calling for a booming 34C (89.6F - 93.2F for my American friends to the south).  Of course we're going to pay for it this weekend when Hurricane Earl blows through here on Saturday.  Currently a Category 4 Hurricane just off the East coast of Florida, Earl is projected to pass right through Nova Scotia and is predicted to be at least a Category 1 when it hits early Saturday morning.  A lot of people around here are reminded of Hurricane Juan which hit Nova Scotia without mercy in 2003.  The rumor is, the weather just before Juan hit was just like it is now, very hot and very humid.  Today, with the humidex, the temperature was around 43C (109.4F) and it is expected to be higher tomorrow.  I wasn't living here when Juan blew through, but from what I've heard, I'm very glad.

-slurp-

So what does this all mean for us?  Probably nothing.  I don't suspect we'll get hit with anymore more than a bit of wind and rain.  These things tend to get a lot slower as they approach the Northern Atlantic and run out of steam.

As I mentioned in my last musing, I'm anxiously awaiting my bonus which should be arriving on the 3rd of September.  I've been thinking a lot about it actually.  I'm also really looking forward to spending Friday night with some family here at our place in celebration, it's not every day the company I work for gives away free money; as you may have noticed if you're read through the last 5 years of musings.

I've also been thinking about what to do about the extra income.  I really don't have much in the way of bills right now given that I only pay for electricity and cable/phone/internet which together is less than $200/month.  I'm mostly caught up on everything so I plan on ensuring everything is topped off completely.  I've also put a lot of thought into buying a laptop.  I'm not looking to spend a lot of money on one but I'm also not looking to "cheap" out and just get one for the sake of having one.  There are a few things I absolutely must have in a laptop but I'm not willing to spend most of the bonus on one so unless there is a good sale (and there are) I won't bother wasting the money.  I've been wanting a laptop for awhile now.  There is something to be said about portable computing and being able to take it with you wherever you go.

These past couple weekends I brought the work laptop with me to my Mother's house.  It is a slow piece of crap (IBM Thinkpad T42) which is running a corporate image of Windows XP that is painful to use.  It makes a great web browser and surfs the web well (when it connects) but a lot of the "features" of the laptop are either disabled or not working properly (thanks to the afore mentioned corporate image) which only makes it more annoying.  I can't even "discover" wireless networks, I have to manually type in the SSID and keys to connect; it's a strange device for certain.

Anyway, I've decided to shop around and find the perfect laptop for me in the price range I'm looking to spend.  If I can't find one, I won't buy one but with the deals going on right now for Back to School, I'm sure I'll find what I'm looking for.  The sad part is I found the perfect laptop for the perfect price already, but the sale ends on the 2nd and I don't get my bonus until the 3rd.  Oh well.

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Well folks, it is time to say farewell for now.  The heat is starting to drain my soul into an eternal abyss of fiery hell from which there is no escape.  It's also very hot outside.  Until next time, remember, just because ice is cold, doesn't mean it's safe to put in places that are hot.  You know what I'm talking about Juggs :)

Cheers,

Al