Changes

As of Nov 8th, I'm the new coordinator for my department.  This puts me with management so I'm no longer in the union.  Some people have reservations about this - loss of job security and... I don't know what else.  The whole job security thing is a myth anyway.  The union was just an excuse to do a crappy job and not care.  It just encourages mediocrity and a sense of entitlement.  Now I actually have to work to deserve a raise.  Anyway, so far the job is going well but I haven't even gotten around to the second half of my responsibilities.  This will be a challenge, that's for sure.

The Waiting Game

I had an interview for a new job today.  Basically, the position is to be the boss of the position I am currently in.  How did it go, you ask?  Not to brag or anything, but it went really really okay.  I have no idea how well I did (or how poorly) because I've been in exactly 3 interviews in my life so I don't have much to compare it to.  I've never been good at marketing myself so I find it difficult to sell me in an interview.  Anyway, now I just have to wait and see if I get the job.  Whether I get it or not doesn't really matter because I still really like the job I'm in, I just wanted to try something bigger.  Wish me luck.

Why I Don't Like Android

Now don't get me wrong, I'm sure that Android is an excellent OS for mobile devices.  And I have to admit that I have never actually used an Android device so everything I'm saying here is based on reviews and comments of other readers of said reviews. 

The reason I switched to a Mac is because I was tired of wading through all the crap that was out there for PCs.  Sure, the PC has everything need and could ever want - and for free - but often, you have to wade through piles of shit to find it.   If you ever got lazy and accidentally installed a POS app, you had to do all kinds of cleaning to get it off your computer and pray that you got all of it (well, I had to pray because I don't know how to do clean things like the registry).  I didn't mind playing with my computer in this way so it wasn't a big deal but when I found that my time was needed elsewhere, like in the baby room to change diapers, I couldn't sit in front of my computer for hours.  And when I had to, I began to hate it.  And this brings us to Android.  The concept is a lot like my old Windows machine: super-customizable and apps are readily available from a variety of sources.  There are some awesome apps out there but there are a whole lot of not-so-awesome apps too.  I don't want to screw up my phone with some POS app and I don't want to bother figuring out which ones are good and which ones are bad.   So the thing that makes Android so great is the very thing that it's not for me. 

Winner!

So last week I did the impossible.  Against all odds, I got what you all want.  I won an iPad.  I was randomly selected with no effort on my part whatsoever.  Okay, that's a bit of a lie - I had to sign up for the contest and go to the mall to check if I won.  Well I did, suckas.  And you know what?  I LOVE IT.  The iPad does everything I want it to do.  Sure, it doesn't do everything, but for what I expect to use it for, it does the job perfectly.  If you don't agree, you go sit on the toilet with your laptop.

Pay Attention and You Might Survive

Advice from cowboys and farmers:

• Your fences need to be horse-high, pig-tight, and bull-strong.
• Don't interfere with something that isn't bothering you.
• Life is simpler when you plow around the stump.
• Most of the stuff people worry about isn't ever gonna happen anyway.
• Don't judge folks by their relatives.
• Remember that silence is sometimes the best answer.
• If it doesn't seem like it's worth the effort, it probably isn't.
• Words that soak into your ears are whispered…not yelled.
• Meanness don't just happen overnight.
• If you find yourself in a hole, the first thing to do is stop diggin'.
• Sometimes you get, and sometimes you get got.
• The biggest troublemaker you'll probably ever have to deal with watches you from the mirror every morning.

Movie Reviews

Whip It with Ellen Page and Drew Barrymore

This was a great, great movie. What made it so good? Don't ask me because there was no nudity or sex scenes, no car chases, and not one single thing blew up. All I know is that I really liked this movie. It was very touching.
Verdict: you should definitely go see this movie. And don't download it - buy or rent it because you'll want to see it again.

Up in the Air with George Clooney

I liked this movie right up until the end. And then I didn't like it anymore. I was kind of expecting it to have an ending that would make me feel better about George's life but it didn't and then it was just kind of depressing. Yeah, I ruined it for you too, what are you gonna do? So the first 99% of the movie was great, but the last 1% ruined it for me. Too bad.
Verdict: you should see this movie anyway. There is a good point in the movie about being human.

Party Like a Rockstar

Congratulations to Ferd and Erin on their wedding yesterday. It was a really fun wedding. It was very classy with a hockey theme. Seriously, it was classy, there were just a few little things that made hockey-ish. Table names were the names of various players (Canucks, past and present), they had a little hockey game so the new couple would kiss, and Ferd came out on rollerblades. So. Much. Fun. Anyway, my sister-in-law took the kids for the evening and dropped us off so we didn't have to worry about driving afterwards and, even better, we slept over at her house so we didn't have to drive home at all. The open bar at the beginning of the wedding and the bottle of scotch the VJ had hidden under the table made for a bit of a drunken evening. So. Much. Fun. Until this morning, that is. I haven't had a hangover like this in years. For the first few hours I couldn't even think about eating or drinking without feeling like puking. Once I got over that, it was just the headache to deal with. Thank God my SiL watched the kids because I ended up sleeping most of the morning. I can't party like the old days anymore.

People

I was reading some old blog posts and I remembered there was a button at the top to view the "next blog". As I clicked through it, I noticed something about the random blogs I was taken to: a lot of bloggers (on this website anyway) are writers of some sort or they read a lot. About 5 or 6 years ago, everyone and their dog had a blog (see, I'm a poet too) to talk about anything and everything. People wrote about their day-to-day lives and made comments about the things they experienced and saw in the world. I suppose people still do that, it's just in 140 characters or less now. Anyway, I guess it makes sense that people in the literary world will keep a blog, I mean, they are more interested in reading and writing than, say, a nerd like me. The only problem I find is that I'm not really interested in reading about their short stories or poetry or the book they read last week. I'm more interested in their actual lives. I like to read about people's everyday lives. The things that make them tick. Their real stories that got them to where they are now. Y'know, that's something I miss about working in the hospital: meeting hundreds of new people and getting to know their stories.

Easy-peasy

Something I'm going to start working on is using my internet habits to make money. If I could get paid to watch internet porn, I'd be a rich man. But, things like that don't happen so I have to find other ways. An easy one is AdSense. Kind of a no-brainer I suppose. Anyhoo, you guys should do it too.

The Day

When I was younger, my I was getting in trouble from my dad and I said, "it's not fair!" My dad's response to me was, "The world isn't fair." He went on to say some stuff about being a good person and if you are responsible for your own actions then even if the world isn't fair you can at least say you did your part. Or something like that. Anyway, his first words 'the world isn't fair' are the ones that stuck with me all these years. I knew that even if I did my best and worked hard there was still the chance that things wouldn't go my way. No point in screaming and yelling about it, the world just wasn't fair. So, if I wanted something done I knew that I had to do it myself. I had to earn it myself. I'm not entirely sure this was the best lesson in life but it did teach me one thing: I learned to be independent. I learned to trust in myself. If you combine that with my faith in my religion, I know now that even though the world isn't fair, I'm at peace with myself living in that world. Happy Father's Day, Dad.

My Job is Better Than Yours

A big part of my job is to teach people how to use the software that I kind of help configure. I used to do more of that configuration bit but I've been bumped by these new, young, whippersnappers. I also used to teach classes more often, but it gets boring so I let everyone else do it and I just pick up the scraps. Anyway, right now we're going through go-live training so we're running 2.5 hour classes 3-6x/day, every day at 4 different sites. We're supposed to teach something like 3000 people in an 8 week period. It's a little rough at times but not today. Only had 2 classes today and they were easy ones. Days like today, I really like my job. Why would I ever leave??

Just My Opinion

I read a lot of tech websites. Well, maybe not a lot, but a few. One of the common topics that comes up is the whole Android vs. iPhone debate. Android is more customizable and there is no restrictions on apps and there are more devices that run it etc etc. I only have one thing to say about the iPhone: I still like it better. A lot. I like for the exact reason that many people criticize it: it has a closed platform that you can only get onto through the app store and then only if your app gets approved, you can't customize every little detail, it is intimately tied to my desktop (specifically, iTunes), and the OS is only available on one handset. The exclusivity to one carrier isn't an issue here in Canada, in fact most of our carriers have iPhones now. If you disagree with me, feel free to press alt-F4.

I'm No Racist, but Everyone Should Look the Same

I've been hearing about a lot of stupid shit going on in Arizona lately. Tell me what's wrong with this sentence: “I’m not a racist by any stretch of the imagination, but whenever people start talking about diversity, it’s a word I can’t stand.” Seriously? Maybe you're definition of "racist" is a little too narrow.

Look Me Up

Okay, I did a bit of reading - not a lot, but enough to convince me - and I've decided that Apple's MobileMe service is a waste of money. I can sync my iPhone and computer with Google for free. As much as I like Apple products (they are just easy to use), their online presence is kinda weak. I may not own any physical product made by Google (like a Nexus One *drool*), but their online services kinda rock. Google Docs? Awesome. Gmail? Pwns the world. Calendars? Rocks. and the Search? Epic. The best part of all these? All. Free. Am I worried about Google having too much of my information? No. Why not? Because, seriously, what are they going to do with it? Spam my inbox? Sell it to someone so they can spam my inbox? Steal my identity? Google doesn't have my SIN, my credit card number, or even my real address. Maybe I'm just being naive but I'm not paranoid either.

Another Pet Peeve

You know what else is pretty annoying? When people say things like, "It's always been this, why change it now?" Just because you've been doing something one way for the past 20 years doesn't mean you should continue doing it for the next 20 years. Yes, I realize that it has worked just fine for you all this time, but there are a lot of things that "worked just fine" for many years before "progress" stepped in. Like, say, waiting in line at a bank to see a teller so you can deposit your paycheck. Or mailing a letter to the other side of the world and waiting 6 weeks for a response.

Pet Peeves

My friend at work really hates when people don't put a subject in their emails.  I hate it when people put too much in their subject line.  Or worse, they put their whole fricken message in the subject line and nothing in the body of the email.  Do not put 3 sentences in the subject line, damnit!

Internet

It seems as though I'm getting a lot of those... whatever they're called things that automatically post comments on your blog. I think they're supposed to be like spam in the blog world. Anyway, they're pretty fucking annoying and I've been deleting them when I remember to.

BTW, does anyone have a mobileme account? Is it worth it? What are the benefits for me? I did a bit of reading on it and it doesn't look like it's anything special - nothing there that I can't already do with Google or my ISP webspace. Can anyone convince me that I should spend $100/year on mobileme?

iPad Day

No, I didn't get an iPad. I can't. It's not available in Canada yet. Do I want one? Well, let's take a look at it:

no USB

no SD card slot

no Flash

Apple-approved apps only

blah blah blah

I can live without Flash, big fricken deal. If the iPad's sales are decent, people will just start creating iPad versions of their websites.

Apple-approved apps only - fine with me. I don't like sifting through all the crapware that's on the web anyway. I switched to a Mac for a mindless, stable system because I don't have time for computer maintenance on a regular basis. I want someone else to make sure a piece of software doesn't crash my computer.

USB and card slots would have been nice, especially since it starts with only 16GB of storage. Even my netbook has 160GB. I guess streaming the cloud are the key here.

In conclusion, all you iPad naysayers can go screw yourself.

I Figured it Out

Ever since the time change last week, I've been all fucked up. Who would think that one hour time difference would wreck me so much? I used to do shift work damnit! I used to work 12-hour nights and then switch back to a regular sleep schedule. Jet lag when I come back from Asia doesn't affect me as much as this 1-frickin-hour time change did. Every night I ended up going to sleep at 2am and every morning I have to wake up at 6:30am. No wonder I've been so exhausted all week.

Quality Time

Celia often works on weekends. I could probably count on one hand how many weekends she's had off in the past year (Saturday and Sunday). What this usually means to me is that I'm home alone with the kids. I have to feed them, entertain them, clean them, and/or put them to bed. I'm not saying this is a bad thing, but it is tiring. The nice thing about this is that I can have some real quality time with them. I don't get to play with them much on weekdays because it's all business when I get home: prepare dinner, feed, clean up, bathe, bedtime. It's nice to spend the day to just play with them.

Pet Peeve

You know what I find annoying? When people say, "I use my bluetooth to talk on the phone while driving." "Bluetooth" does not refer to the device itself. "Bluetooth" is wireless protocol used to connect devices over a short distances. That thing hanging off your ear is just a wireless headset that connects to your phone using "Bluetooth". It's quite common for people to use the term this way and it drives me nuts.

The Door is Closed

When I bought my first iPod, I was a little unsure of how often I would actually want to put headphones on and drown out the world with my music. At first, I would hook it up to some portable speakers so I could still hear stuff going on around me. I'd probably still do that except now I wear my headphones at work so I can ignore people that try to talk to me. It's not that I don't want to talk to them, I just don't want to talk to them. I can still kinda hear them cuz I don't turn it up all the way, but now I have an excuse for why I completely ignored them. It's great.

I'm a Jerk

You know that comedian Russell Peters? Look him up if you've never heard of him, but I'll just say he's pretty fucking funny. Anyway, one thing he said that was funny and really really true was when he tells the white guy that he will never be as racist as someone from the minority. Like when I make all kinds of racist jokes towards white people or when I discriminate against other minorities because it's okay cuz I'm a minority too. Okay, I admit this is despicable behaviour and I'm a terrible person for doing it. In my defence, I will say that... um, okay, there's no real defence for this but he's totally right about it. Minority groups will be the most racist bastards you'll ever see and the white man can't say anything or else he'll be a racist. There was a white guy that did that to me once. I'd describe him to you but they all look the same to me...

Flirting 301

A few years ago I wrote something about how to flirt. I really hope this helped you guys out there. I hope you were able to successfully flirt with that girl you really like without coming off too creepy. I kinda realized - 4 years later - that other side of learning how to flirt is the awareness of when someone is flirting with you. Being the handsome and attractive devil that I am, I give you this information based on personal experience. With that in mind, please be aware that if you find someone flirting with you (you know this because of what I'm about to tell you) and you flirt back and end up getting rejected, well... that's what you get for taking dating advice from me. Dummy.

How to Tell She's Flirting with You:

1. She mimics your movements - if she's into you, she'll lean when you lean, she'll turn when you turn, and she'll dance like an idiot. Like you.
2. She makes an effort to touch you - when she touches your knee or touches your arm or find reasons to get you to put your arm around her, she doesn't think you're disgusting.
3. She licks her lips - no, she's not trying to be all sexually suggestive, she's trying to get you to listen to her and she's drawing attention to her mouth. Be careful with this one - she may have just eaten some chips and still thinks you're gross.
4. She makes eye contact - if her eyebrows are angled in and she gets wrinkly between her eyes, she's probably just mad at you and is giving you the evil eye. The key to this one is eye contact while smiling.
5. She asks for your number - she either wants to talk to you again or you've just crashed your car into hers and she wants to sue your ass. Please remember the context of the situation is key.

Most of these are covered in my original flirting post but since you're having trouble meeting girls, I thought I'd lay it out for you. You know, so you don't have to read between the lines.

Procrastinators Never Learn

After my computer backup issue, or lack of backup, I was going to buy an external hard drive for backing up my shit. That was in December. Now that its February, I'm seriously considering buying that external hard drive so I don't lose all our stuff again. No really, I'm going to have an external backup before my 2nd anniversary.

Change for the Sake of Change

Recently, King George Highway was renamed King George Boulevard. This just makes all the difference in the world. Imagine the possibilities! No seriously, I like the new name better but I'm not sure it makes any difference whatsoever.

Highway it is...

I don't consider myself conceited or self-centered. Generally speaking, I think I'm pretty humble and selfless. I am a nurse, after all. Anyway, with that said, I just want to make it absolutely clear: my way is better.

Transplant Surgery

About a week before Christmas we had a bit of an emergency. Nothing life-threatening, but still pretty traumatic at the time. We turned our iMac off for the night and the next day when I turned it on, the OS wouldn't start. I played around with it for about 2 days and then did some serious troubleshooting. My not-so-expert evaluation was that the hard-drive failed. This could easily be fixed by bringing it in to an Apple store and they would replace the harddrive under the AppleCare warranty. Unfortunately, at the time I bought the iMac, I chose to upgrade the RAM and HDD rather than buy the extended warranty. D'oh! So I did what any computer-geek wannabe would do: I bought a new harddrive, opened up the iMac and swapped out the harddrive by myself. Super easy to do and I doubled the storage capacity. Only problem is the data recovery part on the old failed harddrive is going to cost a lot of money. I'm putting it off until Celia really really really needs something from it.

One More Thing...

So yesterday Apple announced their new tablet device, the iPad. I realize that the name isn't great but it kinda makes sense. It shows a connection to their #1 device, the iPod and it resembles a pad (of paper). Why do people immediately think of feminine hygiene products? There are other things called pads. Do you think of a menstrual pad when you refer to protective gear in hockey? or when you're writing on a pad of paper? or if you use a heating pad? Seriously, why would you compare a tablet device to menstrual pad? Grow up. Anyway, the new iPad has taken a lot of flak for being a big letdown. People want it to multitask, they want it to make phone calls, they want it for video conferencing, and they want it to pleasure them in obscene ways. Steve Jobs never said it was meant to any of these things. Email, music, ebooks, photos, and browsing are all it is really meant to do. Okay, I agree that the browsing is a bit of a fail with out flash support but if you've ever surfed on an iPhone for any length of time, you're used to it not working anyway. Still sucks, but you get used to it. I personally like this new device. It is exactly something that I've always wanted. I don't want a laptop - you can't use it in portrait mode, you pretty much have to sit it on your lap or a table, and you have to open it to use it. The tablet turns on just as fast as your iPhone (don't even try to tell me your laptop is ready to go that fast), its a convenient size and shape, and it does exactly what it was meant to do. It is not a laptop replacement, nor a smartphone alternative. Like he said, it is something inbetween. Yes, it is missing a few things, namely a usb port and an sd card slot, but otherwise, I think it fills the role for which it was made quite well.

Where Did You Go?

I've been away for a while. It's totally not my fault though, I've been so busy with... stuff. Okay okay, it's completely my fault. My bad. Sorry. Let's just have a quick summary of the crap in my head over at the moment.

Did you know you only needed on space after a period? I mean when you're typing, not when you're handwriting, dummy. You're probably wondering "when did this change?" Well, it wasn't that long ago, it was just with the invention of the word processor on a computer. Well I still like to have 2 spaces and I'm not submitting anything to a publisher so tough shit.

Remember when Michael Jackson died last summer? What were you doing when you found out? Anyway, I got into a debate with my co-workers about this. I'm a huge fan and I think he was a musical genius. Some (most) people I work with think he was a freaky pedophile. They weren't around for the glory years so I don't blame them for not understanding. So anyway, I was watching This Is It and the whole thing is like a documentary about the making of his big concert. I'm telling you again, he was to pop music and dance what Mozart was to the piano and classical music. What Newton was to physics. What Schwarzenegger was to action movies. They changed it all and made it was it is today. Hey, I'm a fan.

Blogging is difficult in the age of Facebook. The problem is that Facebook usually gives me just enough space to make a smart ass comment without having to get into great detail. Blogging almost forces me to explain the joke because there's just so much damn space to type. I promise to try and write here more often so you can read about all the stupid shit in my life.