ShinyPlasticBag

Ack! Guess what? I'm sick. Again. This is, like, the third time this year. I'm not pleased, not even one nano-iota. Of course, there's nothing one can do about being sick (despite what Mike claims, so I will just roll with the punches and continue to absorb sleep.

Life has been fairly boring for the last few days; my weekend at work was uneventful. I've gotten called in to take a shift on Thursday, so assuming I'm not dying, I'll have to be there for seven AM. Ugh. I'd prefer a backshift over that, but what can you do?

I spent most of the evening diligently working on a new layout for this site, although I'm experiencing major inspiration block. I love the sort of layout at Mezzoblue, mainly because of the way the sidebar is organized. The next layout I do will be a major overhaul, because if you look back, this site is basically the same as it was a year ago...just with a different skin. Time for some changes. The first order of business will be to consolidate the existing menu options and to add a photo gallery. Actually, the first order of business is to come up with a colour scheme.

So, if any of you can think of a nice colour palette for me to work with, post it here. Three colors would make me very happy — I'm sick of the green and blue (at least the shades of green and blue that I'm using).

Anyway, I'm off to inhale some Sudafed and get some sleep.

• Written on 27 April 2004 & posted at 11:32 PM.
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Arg. My network connection is going very slowly tonight. I'm not sure if it's actually the connection, or whether it's the fact that I'm connected via SSH instead of the standard Telnet. Since SSH sends more bytes per keystroke (being encrypted and all), it may have something to do with it. Still, it would be pretty pathetic if SSH was overloading this connection. I'm not really sure why I feel the need to use SSH instead of Telnet, but something about the ominous “Raptor Secure Gateway” that got inserted into all of my Telnet connections made me a wee bit uncomfortable. Like I'm doing anything important.

I've been here for a bit over 20 minutes, and only one person has come through. Maintaining a rate of one person per twenty minutes would actually lead to a busy day overall (that would be 72 people, and we usually only average sixty or so). Still, it's unusual for the first bit of a backshift.

Aaanyway, I've been messing around with Knoppix for the past few days, and I have to say that I'm pretty impressed. The entire idea of popping in a CD and booting a strange, new operating system intrigues me — especially when I can eject it and reboot to get back to my familiar desktop. The system is pretty smooth and the distro is jammed full of goodies: various window managers, Mozilla, OpenOffice — you name it. Plus, it successfully finds all of my hardware. That surprised me, since I've got a laptop, and things tend to be mildly quirky with them. My previous experience with a “painless” Linux distribution was WinLinux 2000 (which dropped off the face of the planet), and that was four years ago. All I remember is that it was unable to find my sound or video cards, both of which were brand name (Creative and ATI, respectively), and I gave up pretty quickly. Also, BeOS, the supposedly hyper-user-friendly operating system, would never find my networking card. Overall, painless operating systems have been pretty painful for me. As far as Knoppix goes, I quite like it, but I don't think I could ever use it (or any Linux distribution) as a primary operating system. My main complaint? Fonts. If every bit of text on all of my windows is going to be in a partcular font, I want it to be a font that I like, and the default fonts (such as Helvetica) are quite horrid. Plus, there's no ClearType support to make things squeaky clean on LCDs. Aren't I a petty little bastard?

(Badger! Badger! Badger! Badger! Badger! Badger! Badger! Badger! Badger! Badger!)

I'm in a very strange mood, and missing the days of me writing up journal entries that actually reflected what was going on in my life. For some reason, I tend to gloss over the details and focus in on some stupid, abstract point that I have selected. Maybe that's just the way I am. Really, though, what's the point of a blog that doesn't actually chronicle anything? Oh, wait. That's 99.9% of blogs. Heh.

I picked up an extra shift for Sunday night (backshift, of course), which effectively boosts my paycheque by 25%. I should be getting about $521 a week from next Thursday, minus taxes and union dues. Go jobs! I just wish I did something interesting with my money. Somehow, it seems to evaporate into coffees and fast food. Sigh.

Update, like 16 hours after I wrote the rest of this: The ward clerk I work with, Andrea, got sick last night and had to go home. That meant I had to go it alone in the ER as far as non-medical staff went. Fortunately, it wasn't busy (only 8 people came in all night), but it meant no breaks for me. Ye gods, did I have cabin fever by the time I strolled out of there at seven. Wish me better luck for tonight.

• Written on 24 April 2004 & posted at 04:53 PM.
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What's that, you say? Mark isn't dead? Why, that's outrageous! What possible excuse could he have for going so long without a post? What does he have to do that's better than this? Hard questions, sure. And I don't have any real good answers, unfortunately. If you've ever done that whole university thing, though, you know what time of year it is. I'm pleased to announce that as of, oh, 3:00 PM today, I became free-freee-freeee for the next four and a half months. My last final (for my intro to ethics class) was today, and I think I did alright. Everything is finally out of the way and I can start doing all of the things I've wanted to do (finishing Linkpool 3.0, for example) and everything I've just been putting off (fixing Dad's computer). At least I'll be able to sleep in tomorrow — it's been a long, long time since I've been able to do that at will. Note that sleeping for most of the afternoon after a backshift doesn't count.

Anyway, to recap my life as of late, I spent the weekend working and being bored — my attempt to see Kill Bill: Vol. 2 on Saturday night was not nearly as successfull as one would hope — and then got up surprisingly early on Sunday so I could drive down to Western Shore for Joey's 65th birthday extravaganza. Mom conspired with his offspring to organize a big surprise party (code-named Operation: Star Trek), and it seems to have worked. I've put together a photo gallery of the more interesting moments, although they focus on me and my stupid friends more than Joey and his fancy party. Don't blame me, I've got the attention span of a fruit fly.

Continue reading “Third Editions are the Best”...

• Written on 22 April 2004 & posted at 12:16 AM.
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I'd apologize for the delay, but I purposely put off writing about last night's adventures because I thought that a sleep-deprived entry would be more humorous to read. Also, I had a busy day.

This entire week, I have wanted to go on an adventure. So, last night, once we had all congregated at my house, we started bouncing around ideas for something to do (note: we are, in some respects, a bit like a company — I doubt many other groups of friends sit around and brainstorm before doing something). By the time we had come up with something, it was nearly 9 PM (Til I Come), which made our stupid adventure not only more stupid, but more adventurous. We had decided to drive...to New Brunswick.

For those of you who are fortunate enough to not be familiar with the local terrain, New Brunswick is about three hours that way (I assure you, I'm pointing in the correct direction), and moreover, the weather last night wasn't particularly great. We headed out onto the highway in two cars (John and Janet in John's car; Steve, Keddy and I in Steve's) and proceded to advent (assuming that is what one does whilst adventuring — I'm using a lot of parenthesis, aren't I?). Although the weather cleared up somewhere between the airport and Truro, they got worse again quite quickly. By 10:30, we were at the toll highway and well on our way to hitting the Nova Scotia/New Brunswick border by 11 — giving us enough time to take a quick picture of the Bienvenue a Nouveau Brunswick and have Keddy home in time for him to get some sleep prior to his test the following morning. However, about ten or fifteen minutes past the toll highway, the weather got much, much worse, getting so foggy that we couldn't even see the white lines on the pavement. So, we pulled over, I switched cars, and drove home. When Janet decided that, were she to hold in peeing any longer, she would explode, we started checking the exits for open gas stations. The one we finally found (Elmsdale, I think) led us to an Irving, where I rescued some guy from the horrible fate of losing his bank card. From there to home, it was pretty much smooth sailing. We got home around 12:36.

This morning, I got up and dragged Steve over to Halifax to help my dad move. Although he'd hired mover-guys (who were quite amusing, incidentally), speeding things up saved some money. The new place is nice, near James, and most likely built by the same people, since the interiors are very similar. I give it 3.5 stars.

This entry is currently 7 lines long (counting this one, and the title). Got to love text-mode text editors that don't have line wrapping. Sigh. Anyway, I'm going to end the incoherency by sharing a new word that Steve invented today: corright. Think correct + right and you'll pretty much be where he was. It's not so complicated.

• Written on 17 April 2004 & posted at 04:44 AM.
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From the category of “best show ever”, MacGyver is just coming on Spike right now. That's really is a great television show: when I heard they were aiming for the whole “first network for men” thing, I figured it would be all truck shows and wrestling. Or “wraaaslinn”, as it were. I'm pleased that there's so much Star Trek.

Yesterday, which was supposed to be reserved for studying for the political science exam I just wrote, was spent sleeping. I have been ridiculously tired lately, to the point of shame. Stick me on a couch and I'm out of it. It all worked out in the end, of course — the final was pretty easy — so I guess I can't complain.

Recapping the last few days, Sunday night led to some fantastic greatness with Keddy and Steve, driving around aimlessly and having generic summerish adventures. I can't wait until the weathers gets hotter, but in the mean time, I'm having a blast. The adventure took us all over, including a visit to Dingle Tower, and culminating in Keddy taking home a prize. It's a big Orange Crush cooler, the kind you see at football games and large barbecues. It's pretty friggin' awesome. Anyway, I'm currently accepting applications for cohorts for an adventure on Thursday night (having another exam out of the way will require some adventuring). Let me know who's interested.

For those who don't read the comments, you'll be excited to know that everybody's favourite Aussie, Kitta, made some web-ookies, including some just for us here at ShinyPlasticBag. You rock, Kitta.

Remote controls with new batteries kick ass. So does the Price is Right. And so does Kraft Dinner. I'm going to combine my love for these three things. And fall asleep on the couch.

• Written on 13 April 2004 & posted at 12:20 PM.
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Keddy is now the proud owner of a Crush pop cooler, of the sort generally seen in convenience stores.

Tune in later on for the story, but feel free to speculate in the mean time. I'm going to go get some sleep.

• Written on 12 April 2004 & posted at 01:37 AM.
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I'm posting these middle of the night ramblings now because I'll be too embarassed by their incoherentness once I get some sleep. Before I do, however, I'd like to suggest a new word (besides incoherentness): learly. Pronounced “lurly”. It's that time where it's late, but technically it's early. Like...4 am. That's learly. Even if you just woke up at 4 am, it's not early. It's late. Quantum mechanics, my friends.

• Fatigue is the state of perceiving gravity pulling your body towards Earth.
• Also, there is something extremely calming about walking around the city at night. Especially when you notice that your footsteps are perfectly aligned with the traffic lights: red left, yellow right. Rinse. Repeat.
• I've discovered a way of tracking the progress of the night without looking at one of the six thousand clocks spread throughout the ER: the front windows. My desk faces them. When I arrive, due to the fact that it is bright in here and dark outside, they are essentially one-way glass: perfect mirrors to me. From the outside, you can see inside, but from the inside, I can see myself. As the night goes on, the outside slowly becomes visible. By the time I leave in the morning, the one-way glass effect is completely gone. Currently, I can only see the street lights.
• From the category of “under-rated movies that I have fond but indistinct memories of, which happen to be on at five AM”, “A Life Less Ordinary” was pretty great.
• For once, there is a wide selection of things to watch on TV: generally speaking, it's nothing but old westerns and infomercials. Tonight, I want to simulataneously watch 16/22/35/37/47/51. I'm focusing on 16 (Treasure! — about the Hope Diamond), and during commercials flipping between 35 (PBS — about the coalecenth) and 37 (TBS — A Life Less Ordinary). Life is good, considering the fact that it's 5:19 am and I feel like I might drop dead at any time.
• Okay, the coelacanth is one of the closest links between mammals and fish. One of its descendants climbed out of the water onto land. My thought now is, what's stopping them from doing it again? What if a coelacanth climbs out of the water someday? That'd be weird.

No more backshift blogging!

• Written on 11 April 2004 & posted at 07:44 AM.
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Last night, boredom struck. After a day of hanging out with Castro and picking up Janet with Steve and Keddy, things got boring at about ten. So, Mike came over after work and took Castro and I on an epic adventure.

The first stop? Tim Horton's, of course. We got coffee and bagels (yay) and drove by Mike's new house to check the progress. To our surprise, people were still working on it (putting in the windows), so we kept on driving and stopped at the end of a nearby court to drink/eat. At this point, an old lady who was obviously insane came out onto her porch and starting yelling at us. Keep in mind, we were parked quietly at the end of a court — not even any music playing. There was absolutely nothing we were doing that could have possibly bothered any normal human. Anyway, the old lady kept yelling at us and told us that she had called 911. (“The mounties are on their way RIGHT NOW!”) We decided it was safe to ignore the craziness and finished our stuff in peace. The old lady decided that maybe the best way to get rid of the offensive people sitting quietly in a minivan was to flash a flashlight at us — we decided to flash back with an umbrella/flashlight combo I found in the back. She did not know any Morse Code.

Anyway, while we drove out she told us to fuck off and flashed the light at us again. We decided that it would be fun to turn around and go back again, just to see what new phrases she would yell. Man, was she mad. She basically just yelled “fuck” over and over again. We love her. And we named her Judy.

Now, it's time to watch some TV and mentally prepare myself for work tonight. Blah.

• Written on 09 April 2004 & posted at 02:17 PM.
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Well, I had an interesting weekend, which inadvertantly stretched into Monday when I missed my bus. Since I was already late, by the time I would have arrived at school, I would only have had one class left. I decided to stay home and do nothing at all instead of doing that. What can I say? I'm a slacker towards the end of the semester. Tomorrow is the last day of classes (eeee!) and I have to do the presentation for the Group Project From Hell on Thursday morning. Following that, home free-edness.

Anyway, to make up for the lack of entries over the course of the weekend, here's a detailed report.

Friday: Some stuff happened, and then I went to work. By “some stuff”, I mean “nothing whatsoever” — I sleep on Friday evenings so I don't fall asleep on backshift, and therefore, my Friday nights are ridiculously boring. Nothing is sadder than going to sleep at six PM: nothing.
Saturday: On the drive home from work at 7 am, one of the people I work with fell asleep while driving home. She was on the highway, but miraculously was unharmed in the meeting of car and non-road. The car, sadly, didn't make it. Saturday night, I hung out with Russell and Amanda and Janet and got to work at exactly 11 pm. The night flew by at work, because of Daylight Saving Time. It's the only time I've ever been happy that we were losing an hour during the night, because I got paid for a full shift and basically got off an hour early. Most of the night was spent setting clocks, of which there are three trillion spread throughout the emergency room.
Sunday: Keddy and I went to get Mom. We rediscovered two signs that we laughed about all last summer: a conversation nailed to trees, basically. Take a look, but read the sign on the right first (remember: you're driving in the far lane from right to left, so that's the one you see first). That evening, we sped off with Mike and an adventure, which ended up with us in Sambro, well out of cell phone range — when you're a bunch of tech laden suburbanites like us, this is definitely a bad thing. However, we got some great photos, and you can view our Trip to Sambro if you feel like it. I got some great bridge shots.
Monday: Hung out with Mike, but didn't do anything all that exciting. We decided at one point that it would be fun to visit Staples — who doesn't like looking at office supplies and expensive desks? — but, in the spirit of adventure, decided to go to one that we'd never visited before. We ended up in Sackville, via the longest route possible. Go us. Regardless, it was fun.

Well, that was my weekend. I guess the summertime adventures have begun again, albeit in limited form (hey, it's still kind of cold). Happy days are here again.

• Written on 06 April 2004 & posted at 02:27 PM.
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Another year, another day of not being sure what's real. This year's April Fool's Day was pretty decent — lot's of good pranks. Taylor has enumerated a few, and someone named Urgo created a much more exhaustive list. Some of the tech gags were obviously fake — for example, the video iPod, which looks like a different device in each picture — but I'm still wondering about Google's GMail. Why? Because it's feasible.

Giving every user 1 GB of storage sounds, well, crazy, but if you think about it, it only costs about a dollar per gigabyte of storage for consumer quality drives. Buying in bulk would lower the cost even more, and we have to take into account a few obvious factors: first, not everyone is going to use an entire gigabyte of storage; second, everyone is going to start off using absolutely no storage; third, it's going to take a long time for somebody to fill up a gigabyte. I think that, taking these three factors into account, the entire operation sounds feasible. The timing of it, of course, makes it a likely April Fool's candidate, but even so, it remains a possibility for the future. And let's not discount everything that gets announced on April 1st: think back, oh, 28 years and you'll find that Apple announced the Apple I on April 1st, 1976.

Eep, it's time for networking class. Only three more of these suckers left and I'm done (classes officially end on Wednesday). Steve is grabbing me right after class and we're going to install his new deck. Let's hear it for improved audio while in the rolling state. Wee!

Jesus and I love you.

• Written on 02 April 2004 & posted at 11:30 AM.
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