In fact it seems that I can play with time at my leisure these days. I use two alarm clocks both of which are pretty old but the one I use for the buzzing alarm (my failsafe alarm) seems to be having difficult keeping time. I’ve noticed over the past few days that it was a few minutes ahead of the other one but until yesterday it wasn’t that big of a deal. In the morning it was about 10 minutes faster and by the time I got home last night it was 30 minutes ahead. I set it back to be synchronized with the other alarm clock but within a couple of hours it was 40 minutes ahead again. So I set it again to be in synch. This morning it went off 30 minutes ahead of schedule and by the time I left home it was up to 40 minutes. It sounds to me that it would be wise to get a new alarm clock because if this continues I’m going to be waking up to the alarm several hours early and that probably won’t be good for the psyche.
You are currently browsing the monthly archive for March 2006.
Tags: alarm-clocks, It Happened To Me, time
It’s wonderful that the spring weather has arrived. I think we were all getting a little sick of winter. It’s especially nice that when I wake up it’s already light outside. I guess that little by little incremental change that I was talking about earlier really does pay off after a few weeks. After Saturday though it’ll be dark again early in the morning but at least the sun will go down later and eventually it’ll be light again when I wake up.
We bought a few gardening things on the weekend including some seeds and some greenhouse-like trays to start growing them in. Hopefully the cats don’t sniff around too much but I think we’re safe for now since it’s just peat. On Monday we took Eve and Pumpkin outside. There was a scary moment involving a raccoon but fortunately no harm was done. I was afraid that Pumpkin might bolt either up a tree or through a fence but I don’t think she even saw the raccoon.
This coming weekend we’ll be cleaning up the backyard to remove all of the brush and such that has accumulated over the winter. That willow tree certainly does like to shed.
There was a girl shot in the leg by her boyfriend right near where I work on Tuesday night. Also there were two people killed near where we used to live. It seems that the spate of shootings continues in this city.
Tags: Cats, daylight-savings-time, raccoons, shootings, spring, spring-cleaning, Toronto
When you wake up at nearly the exact moment your ride arrives to take you to work, you won’t be catching that ride. I think it’s good to remind myself what it’s like to take the bus to work in the morning (I had to do it again today since Leo has the day off). At least it lets me succumb to my temptation. Perhaps I can possibly win with Coffee Time since at Tim Horton’s it’s always “Roll up the rim to lose” for me.
Tags: coffee-time, Commuting, lesson, temptation, tim-hortons
I’m not sure why but I feel really exhausted today. I recall sleeping ok last night but perhaps I didn’t sleep as soundly as I may think I did. I’m sure I look tired.
Tags: exhaustion, sleep, tired
I desperately need a haircut. Perhaps I’ll try and do that on the way home tonight.
I absolutely love ginger marmalade. I picked some up last week and I had it on my toast this morning for breakfast. The soothing properties of the ginger combined with the jelly properties of traditional marmalade makes for a very good eat. I used to eat it a lot in the 2000-2001 period but really haven’t eaten it since then. You really have to like strong ginger to eat this stuff; since I was raised on crystalized ginger back in that same period I’m ok with eating large amounts of ginger.
Tags: Food, ginger, ginger-marmalade, marmalade
I bought a new pair of shoes last week on Thursday. My old shoes were really starting to fall apart which is to be expected when you wear pretty much the same shoes everyday for a year and a half. I decided to buy a pair of Rockports since Marcy swears by them. They’re a little more expensive than regular shoes but they are extremely comfortable so so far I’d say it’s worth the expense. Anyway yesterday at the grocery store I bought some leather protectant for my new shoes so that they’ll last a maximal amount of time. I sprayed them in the hallway and then realizing that the scent was rather strong I placed them on the front stoop. You’re supposed to reapply the product a couple of times but I completely forgot about my shoes being outside until this morning when I was about to leave. I feared that they may have been stolen or destroyed by some animal (we have some pretty vicious raccoons). Fortunately neither happened but there was one unintended consequence – since it hasn’t been overly warm recently the shoes were rather cold when I put them on my feet. They’re still pretty cool and I’ve had them on for over an hour. Hopefully they get more comfortable soon.
Tags: cold, protection, rockport, shoes
I really don’t like the advertising on the CBC News site that they’ve introduced this week. They’re really obtrusive. I want my news to be clean and crisp to read. What they’ve given me is a competition for my eyeballs.
Tags: advertising, CBC, cbc-news, website
I think the cats stole my glasses last night. I say this because I couldn’t find them anywhere in the house. I’m wearing my contacts instead because I need some kind of optical assistance in order to function without a headache. Hopefully I can find where my glasses are; I don’t really remember taking them off last night before bed but when I do take them off they’re in either 2 places and neither of those places had my glasses this morning. If I can’t find them, well it’s about time for me to visit the optometrist anyway so this might be a good opportunity to do just that.
Tags: Cats, glasses, It Happened To Me, missing
I’ve never had such awful croissants. No wonder they were on the discount rack. Wow. I’m going to have to get something else for breakfast now.
Tags: breakfast, croissants, Food
I had a nightmare last night that raccoons got into our garbage cans and it would be strewn all over the back lawn when I got up. It was the first thing that I checked once I actually woke up. That’s one major difference between apartment-dwellers and house-dwellers – when you’re in an apartment you worry most about things that might be inside your apartment (mice, insects, etc.) but in a house you’re more worried about things outside (raccoons, squirrels, skunks, etc.).
Tags: house, nightmares, raccoons
It seems that NBC has finally clued into how potentially lucrative it can be to have your videos online being watched and shared by fans. Remember the Natalie Portman gangsta rap? Well the original YouTube link that I had was pulled due to copyright violations. Now via A VC I discover that NBC has a set of pages to view these videos that have been so popular. The description at the top is interesting:
Now, instead of searching the web for “borrowed” NBC highlights, you can go to the source! We’ve taken your viral favorites and gathered them into one convenient location. Watch. React. Tell a friend.
I like their use of the term “borrowed NBC highlights”. This is a step in the right direction but they’re not going to stop the flood. You can’t really share the video; you can only point your friends to the same page. In this day and age that just won’t cut it sharing-wise.
Here’s the “official” video for the Natalie Portman gangsta rap. I too prefer the YouTube controls.
Tags: gangsta-rap, natalie-portman, nbc, youtube
It’s been a very exhausting week here at work. My boss is leaving the company today so there are a lot of loose ends to tie up before he’s gone. It means that I’m responsible for all of the software for development too which is an extra set of tasks. Also we had to finish a major migration effort with our production systems. Now that we’re running Java 1.5 in there we should be able to do some more advanced things with our code. I’m thinking of taking a day off next week sometime to be with Marcy since it’s March Break around here. I think I need a break myself.
Tags: Career, java, march-break, Work
I forgot to mention that there’s a new twist to the polar vortex story. Apparently that vortex recently shifted back to this side of the globe and they’re saying that we won’t have an early spring. That certainly was the case the past couple of weeks; it was really cold and windy around here. I wish that wind pattern would make up its mind and either stay where it’s supposed to be all winter or stay away all winter. I don’t like these wild changes in temperatures. They’re not good for my head.
Tags: polar-vortex, spring, Weather, winter
The weather has turned warm again. It’s almost as warm as it was back in January during those blissful “hard winter” weeks. Today it’s raining and tomorrow it’s going to be raining. Saturday? Cloudy and then rain for another two days. That’s the fun of March. The snow gets pelted with rain and disappears and we’re left with a muddy messy swamp-like landscape to trudge through. Usually it’s not even that warm either. The only solace that I can get is that spring is right around the corner and soon the flowers will start blooming (we’re going to Canada Blooms this weekend) and the birds will start meowing and our cats will start chirping to go outside. That is, chirp even more to go outside. Yes I wrote that part about the birds intentionally. I’m definitely looking forward to spring.
Tags: canada-blooms, gardening, rain, Weather
I was looking at some of my stats this evening and noticed that my post about “Alumni in high places” has not seen any traffic since a couple of weeks ago. I went to the GoogleTalk blog post and noticed that my post is no longer in the list of sites linking to that post. Now I was a little bit critical about the Google Desktop Search in my post but I don’t really understand why the entire link would be removed. I’ve been more critical in other posts (that’s why I don’t expect to see a link from Jeff Ltd. anytime soon). I’m not sure what the point is of censoring pingbacks like this. Even so I’m not going to lose any sleep over this; I just thought it was worth mentioning.
Tags: censorship, ctv, google-talk, jeff-ltd., pingbacks
Via Jordon Cooper I came across this intriguing eBay auction:
Looking for a new challenge? Why not become leader of the Liberal Party? It is possible with the Rick Mercer Report Liberal leadership kit.Kit includes:
- Fifteen minute consultation/conference call with the RMR writing staff to craft your campaign message. (Staff includes three high school dropouts and a U of T commerce major. Photo not to scale.)
- The use of our colour printer for photos and such. Ink cartridge is running low on magenta.
The current price is about $4800. Seems like a reasonable price to pay for something that could win you a landslide victory at next year’s leadership convention. If I had a little extra coin lying around I’d consider placing a bid.
The ordeal is finally over. I mailed off the envelopes early this morning when I got to work. Last night I had to trek back to work since I forgot my wallet here (only one saga at a time please) and I stopped off at the post office on the way home to pick up a package of 1-cent stamps (10 stamps = 11 cents). I then took the envelopes, placed two 50-cent stamps on them and then placed a 1-cent stamp on each. I was finally abiding by the postage rules and could successfully mail out these things. I wrote down our return address on both envelopes in case anything else were to happen but I’m crossing my fingers that they will arrive at their destination safely. I guess I’ll know once they deposit my check.
Fin.
Tags: It Happened To Me, mail, Stamp Saga, stamps
Kirby Puckett died today at the age of 44. He suffered a stroke yesterday. He had glaucoma which forced him to retire from baseball back in 1995. He was one of my favourite baseball players when I was growing up and he played for my favourite team, the Minnesota Twins. It’s sad to see him go at such a young age.
I should add that after I learned about his abuse of the women in his life as well as when the sexual harassment charges against him came to light my rosy ideal of him became more than a little tarnished.
Tags: baseball, kirby-puckett, minnesota-twins
I bet you never knew that Natalie Portman is a pretty deft gangsta rapper. It’s a pretty catchy tune and fly guy at the end is a nice touch [via]. P is for Portman.
Edit: Here’s a link that works. It seems that NBC pulled the YouTube video.
Tags: gangsta-rap, natalie-portman, saturday-night-live, snl, videos
I’ll give you an update from Friday because I’m sure you all were waiting on the edge of your seats to know what happened to my pieces of mail.
I went to pick up dinner on Friday night and I brought the mail with me and I also brought the stamps we have at home. I was so determined to mail them out this time. I took one of the envelopes and lifted a stamp off of its backing but beofre I placed it onto the mail I realized that I didn’t really know what the cost of stamps were these days. I was pretty sure that stamp prices had gone up recently but I didn’t know if the ones I had in my hand were the old price or the new price (or possibly some other price). So instead of mailing them out I was stuck with the realization that the stamp I was placing on the envelope might not be enough to get it to its destination.
Instead of taking the risk I decided to hold off until I could verify what the price was once I got home. It’s a good thing I did because the stamps we have are the old price (it’s now 51 cents instead of 50 cents). I’m going to have to find some time this week to visit the post office near us so that I can get some 1 cent stamps to mail these items off. Then this long, arduous struggle of mine will finally be over.
Tags: It Happened To Me, mail, stamps
CTV carries a lot of the shows that we watch on television each week. Every so often they put commercials on advertising one of their made-for-TV movies or special W5 investigation. This week they started hyping their new show Jeff Ltd. They had a “sneak preview” this Wednesday right after American Idol. I could tell from the commercials that I would instantly dislike the show but I decided to give it a try in any case.
I lasted not even 2 minutes. The opening monologue was so tired, so unfunny that I couldn’t stand to watch any longer. I couldn’t believe that CTV would try to air this kind of show.
When I first saw the commercials my first thought was “Hmm, this is almost identical to Curb Your Enthusiasm except with an uglier man.” They were obviously trying to copy the premise of that show except they made the main character even more egotistical and arrogant than Larry David can be. I guess CTV figured that the percentage of Canadians (because this is strictly a Canadian show as far as I can tell) that have seen Curb Your Enthusiasm is rather low since it’s only on DVD or The Movie Network in which case they can copy all they like.
It really seems like they’ve tried too hard in this case. They’ve filmed 13 episodes but I really hope that they don’t bother picking up the show for a full season. I don’t think I could stand to watch the commercials for it.
Tags: canadian-shows, ctv, curb-your-enthusiasm, jeff-ltd., larry-david, Television
I forgot to bring the stamps today so I’m going to have to bring the pieces of mail home so that I can mail them out this weekend.
Tags: It Happened To Me, mail, stamps
Thank goodness for Advil Liqui-Gel Migraine Extra-Strength pills (actual name may vary by market). They help me control the pain of my migraines. I wouldn’t be able to cope without them.
Garnet Hertz – Experiments in Galvanism: Frog with Implanted Webserver [via] This is pretty creepy.
I brought a couple of things with me to work to mail. We have a mail drop in the building here and it’s the only mailbox that I know of in the area. Anyway once I got to work I went over to the mailbox and opened the door. I placed the mail in the slot and started to close it.
Just then I realized that I hadn’t put any stamps on these pieces of mail. Usually stamps are required to ensure proper delivery and considering how one of the envelopes didn’t have a return address and both of them had cheques in them I figured that I should probably rescue the mail before they slid down the chute and thereby becoming lost forever. I acted quickly and snagged the mail just in time. Now I’ll have to remember to bring them home and place the all-important stamps on them tonight.
Tags: excitement, It Happened To Me, mail, stamps
Via Ross’ blog I find this story of evolution between men and women:
That seems pretty accurate to me. Bananas aplenty for me.
As yesterday was Mardi Gras we celebrated at our house by eating some tasty sausages and pancakes. Oh and some scrambled eggs too but that was mainly because we had to eat them up. On top of the pancakes? Some maple syrup. Real maple syrup! I haven’t had real maple syrup since Sunday morning. Ok that was because we were at Deerhurst for the weekend and they had a big vat of maple syrup available for the breakfast buffet. I certainly did not spare any opportunity to make use of this plethora of syrup. Before this past weekend though I can’t think of the last time I had maple syrup. Let me tell you this – I really do love it (in case that wasn’t obvious before).
We also watched Walk the Line last night and it’s really quite a good movie. I’m a pretty big fan of Johnny Cash and I have to say that it’s quite remarkable how similar Joaquin Phoenix sounds like the Man in Black. Personally I enjoyed this movie more than Ray but both of them seemed to end abruptly. It’s weird saying that as the movie is over 2 hours long but I was waiting for more after June and John got married. I suppose I’ll have to read the autobiographies to learn more about that period in their lives. In any case I enjoyed the film.
Tags: deerhurst, joaquin-phoenix, johnny-cash, man-in-black, maple-syrup, mardi-gras, ray, shrove-tuesday, walk-the-line
The Toronto Sun must be feeling the pain of subscriber loss because you can now get their “paper” for a measly 50 cents during the week. It’s still $1 outside of the GTA but here in Toronto it only costs 50 cents. That’s pretty cheap for a newspaper but considering how you can still get free papers (Dose, Metro, 24 Hours) I’m not sure how effective it’ll be to stem the tide. 24 Hours in fact is owned by the same group that runs the Sun so you have to wonder if they’ve shot themselves in the foot by offering a free paper. Maybe in another 6 months it’ll be down to 25 cents to purchase the paper.
Tags: 24-hours, dose, metro, newspapers, Toronto, toronto-sun
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