Monkey Work

Today's big project:

Put together the binders with all the information the new developers will need when they start on July 2nd. Great. I'm officially a monkey. Eight years of web application development experience, and I'm doing crap like this, and tech support?

<beg>
PLEASE, somebody offer me a development job. *please*
</beg>

Friday Five 2003 06 27

Friday Five for today:

1. How are you planning to spend the summer [winter]? - Working. Yippee.

2. What was your first summer job? - landscaping/grounds maintenance. Low pay, hard work, long hours - but I was in amazing shape at the end of the summer!

3. If you could go anywhere this summer [winter], where would you go? - Australia. I have always wanted to go to Australia.

4. What was your worst vacation ever? - I don't think I've ever had a truly bad vacation. Sure, things go wrong sometimes, but in hindsight, there's always something about them to laugh about...

5. What was your best vacation ever? - Oh, there are too many to choose from - we went to so many places when I was a kid. Best of my adult life? Victoria, BC in December 2000, with my wife and son.

100 things about me

Well, everyone else does it, so... here goes:

100 things about me:
1. I'm a geek.
2. I'm 40.
3. I've been married since 1998.
4. My wife is also a geek (but a very talented artistic geek, unlike me)
5. We have a son, born in 2000.
6. We have a cat.
7. We are owned by said cat.
8. I was born in a small village near Prince George, in central British Columbia, Canada, in 1962.
9. I lived there on and off for about 7 years.
10. I lived in Cleveland, Ohio for a year.
11. I lived in Lagos, Nigeria for 2 years.
12. I lived in Menzel Bourguiba, Tunisia for four and a half years.
13. I have lived in Alberta, Canada, on and off.
14. I lived in Southern Ontario, Canada for a total of two years.
15. I have visited 29 countries - wanna know which? ask me.
16. I haven't been out of Canada since 1985.
17. I have three brothers.
18. I have two sisters.
19. My car is a piece of crap (shhh! don't tell it I said that!)
20. I bought my first computer in November 1981.
21. I have a small collection of obsolete computers.
22. I have a small collection of old cameras.
23. I'm a Web Application Developer.
24. I love lasagna.
25. I love chili.
26. My wife makes damn good chili
27. I love to read.
28. I will read almost anything.
29. I prefer SF and Fantasy.
30. One of my friends is a Fantasy author.
31. I like lots of music.
32. I will listen to almost anything.
33. I will not listen to rap, hip hop, and anything related to them.
34. I find most C&W annoying.
35. I played Little League baseball for two years (9 to 11).
36. I don't consider baseball to be a spectator sport.
37. I love hockey, but won't watch NHL hockey now, because the players are overpaid primadonnas, and quite frankly, the quality of hockey has fallen dramatically.
38. Junior Hockey is still fun to watch.
39. I watch CFL football sometimes.
40. I hate NFL football.
41. I hate everything about basketball.
42. I like to golf, but don't get on the course much.
43. I think it's hilarious that for a long time, www.pga.com was actually owned by the Potato Growers of Alberta.
44. I can be opinionated.
45. I can be absentminded.
46. I am Master of the Understatement (see point above)

Ok, it isn't quite 50 so far... give me time, I'll work on it...

Café Signes

From mirabilis.ca:

Here's an addition for your "to visit while in Paris" list: Café Signes, where your waiter will likely be deaf, and you're encouraged to place your order in French Sign Language. From the BBC: Thumbs up for sign-language café.

This or That 2003 06 24

This-or-That for today:

1. Surf sites at random, or have a set list of regular reads? - set list, and rattle along to others from them.
2. Do you visit mostly blogs, or news or other sites? - blog and news
3. Do you go online every day, or just a couple of days a week? - pretty much every day.
4. Do you allow comments on your blog, or not? - of course I do. Not that I get many, but if you wanna comment, please do so! :)
5. Do you shop online at all, or at regular stores? - online only if it's something a local merchant cannot get for me.
6. Have you ever done online bill-paying/banking, or not? - always.
7. Which news site do you prefer... MSNBC.com or CNN.com? Or do you prefer some other one? - CBC.ca, or canoe.ca, or canada.com, or... you get the idea. :)
8. Live chat rooms, or message boards? - "Live chat rooms"? uhhh... I'm old school. IRC, please.
9. Instant messaging or e-mail? - Yes. Depends what I want say, and how urgent and time-sensitive it is.
10. Yes or no: have you ever met, or at least talked on the phone with, another blogger? If not, would you want to? Why or why not? - well, I'm married to a blogger. Does that count? Of course, we know many bloggers, and would meet with others. It's just one more "initial contact" method.

Forbidden Love!

From the front page of the current issue of the Weekly World News:

[note: photo was not in Wayback Machine's archives. will try to track it down and include it.]

Have a peek in the checkout line at your local grocery store...

Friday Five 2003 06 20

Friday Five for today:

1. Is your hair naturally curly, wavy, or straight? Long or short? - Straight. Very straight. Short. I think they call it the "businessman's special"?

2. How has your hair changed over your lifetime? - until I was 9, my father cut my hair. Brushcut. Ick. When he stopped cutting it, rebellion set in, and it maxed out at my shoulder. Over the next 14 years, it slowly crept up to where it is now: "off the ears, off the collar".

3. How do your normally wear your hair? - on my head.

4. If you could change your hair this minute, what would it look like? - same, but maybe a bit more of it? (damn, my forehead is big)

5. Ever had a hair disaster? What happened? - hair disaster? what's that?

Leeches? We don' need no steenkeen leeches!

You will be sucked dry by a leech. I'd stay away
from swimming holes, and stick to good old
cement. Even if it does hurt like hell when
your toe scrapes the bottom.


What horrible Edward Gorey Death will you die?
brought to you by Quizilla
Quizilla

Found on Erin's Journal

This or That 2003 06 17

This or That for today:

1. Newspapers or magazines? - I have to choose? Depends what I want.. a quick overview of everything, or a more indepth view of not-as-much.
2. Books-on-tape or regular books? - Regular books. Unless I'm driving, and want a break from DrivelRadio.
3. Paperback or hardcover? - Paperbacks are cheaper, but if I can find one cheap, I'd prefer the hardcover.
4. Fiction or non-fiction? - Fiction. Non-fiction can be interesting, but when I'm reading for pleasure, mostly I want fiction.
5. Sci-Fi/Fantasy or romance novels? - SF&F. Unless I have trouble sleeping, then I pick up a Harlequin Romance, and *poof*! Problem solved!
6. Borrow from library or buy books (either new or used)? - I'd rather own them! But we borrow books from the library for our son (he loves a trip to the library). We also buy him books, but you can't beat the "try-before-you-buy" of a library!
7. Subscribe to magazines or buy on newsstand? - Buy on newstand. We don't buy many magazines, tho'.
8. Current best-sellers or classic literature? - Only if it's a Classic of SF&F that's on the Best-Seller list...
9. Read books once, or re-read favorites every so often? - most only once, although a few have been read many times (John Wyndham's The Chrysalids, 6 or 7 times)
10. Here in the U.S., we have two hot best-sellers...former First Lady Hillary Clinton's memoirs, and the new Harry Potter book (coming out June 21). If you had to read one, which one...Hillary or Harry? Why? - Harry Potter, of course. Hillary just doesn't have characters (no matter how fictional) to compare!

Upgradia

There. Successful upgrade to MT 2.64. No problems. None at all. Well, other than the loss of "clickable smilies" on my wife's blog. Oops. That's ok, she'll fix it.

So, apparently, our blogs are now more secure...

Friday Five 2003 06 13

Friday Five for today:
1. What's one thing you've always wanted to do, but never have? - use my Superpowers for Evil. Just once. For a change.

2. When someone asks your opinion about a new haircut/outfit/etc, are you always honest? - of course. That poodle on you head looks nothin - er... I mean, that new perm looks great.

3. Have you ever found out something about a friend and then wished you hadn't? What happened? - Yes. I was angry. Then I wasn't. Still wish I didn't know, though.

4. If you could live in any fictional world (from a book/movie/game/etc.) which would it be and why? - Too many cool worlds out there to choose just one! Yowza!

5. What's one talent/skill you don't have but always wanted? - I have always wished I could sing. I can croak a song out pretty good. If everyone in earshot is wearing earplugs, or headphones, or...

This-or-that 2003 06 10

This-or-That for today:

1. "The Munsters" or "The Addams Family"? - "The Munsters", of course.
2. "The Sopranos" or the "Godfather" movies? - I've tried to watch "The Sopranos", but just haven't been able to get into it. I dunno. "The Godfather" was a great movie. The sequels? Not so much.
3. "The Jetsons" or "Lost in Space"? - "Lost in Space", no contest.
4. "Superman" or "Batman" (TV shows or movies)? - "Nanananananana! BAT MAN!"
5. "Sex & The City" or "Friends"? - "Friends". The other is an over-rated piece of [expletive deleted].
6. "The Wizard of Oz" or the "Harry Potter" movies? - Unfair to make us choose. Apples to oranges.
7. "The Simpsons" or "King of the Hill"? - "The Simpsons". d'oh!
8. "Grease" or "Saturday Night Fever"? - "Grease"
9. Old prime-time soaps: "Dallas" or "Dynasty"? - Neither. Ick.
10. Not very thought-provoking this week...do you prefer TV shows or movies? - Yes. No. Maybe. Ok, the real answer is: Movies. I think.

Ok, kids. Tune in next time, same bat time, same bat channel, for the continuing saga of This-or-That Tuesday...

True Geek?

On May 29th, I found this at The ArcterJournal. I neglected to post my score here:

36.48915% - Major Geek

Today I found this other Geek Test, via Cootiehog. My result here:

You are 42% geek You are a geek liaison, which means you go both ways. You can hang out with normal people or you can hang out with geeks which means you often have geeks as friends and/or have a job where you have to mediate between geeks and normal people. This is an important role and one of which you should be proud. In fact, you can make a good deal of money as a translator.

Normal: Tell our geek we need him to work this weekend.

You [to Geek]: We need more than that, Scotty. You'll have to stay until you can squeeze more outta them engines!

Geek [to You]: I'm givin' her all she's got, Captain, but we need more dilithium crystals!

You [to Normal]: He wants to know if he gets overtime.

Take the Polygeek Quiz at Thudfactor.com

See how you do! :)

And the hits go on...

It's amazing what mention on a popular blog will do to traffic rates: robyn over at www.tampatantrum.com mentioned and linked to my Javascript Skinning Tutorial.

Since then, my hits have skyrocketed.

Lisa over at hey.ripthebag.com has also linked the tutorial. Oh, happy day! :)

Thank you to both of you!