Gecko Bloggle

As the years go on, I’m sad to say that I think Bono is looking more and more like Robin Williams.

Had my Dr’s appointment today, and we talked about the Xray, and while they didn’t say “there’s nothing” they DID say “the not-nothing is probably nothing,” so I’m thinking that there’s nothing to worry about, but I’ll either be optimistically correct or willfully ignorant.  At least until I get concrete proof that there’s something to worry about.  My Dr didn’t want to renew my blood thinners, so that’s a good sign, I think.

Gotta head off to bed, but if you’ve been reading over this past month, thanks for dropping by, and I’ll try to post more than once every six months.

Be good to yourself, and if you can’t, be good to someone else.

Just watched Betty White’s interview on The Daily Show and I think I’m probably not the first to come up with this, but I think Phoebe from Friends is a direct scriptwriting descendant from Betty White’s Rose from Golden Girls, who was, I suspect, based on Georgette from Mary Tyler Moore.  I wonder if that makes Kenzie from Lost Girl Georgette’s great granddaughter?

Intense conversations in the evening lead to silliness in the witching hour.

Who else are proto-characters out there that we can draw lines (and sure, stretch the boundaries of characters to the point where we end up with only eight characters for the eight stories in the world)?  I wonder if you grid out the stories vs the characters into the 64 possibilities, will you end up with at least one season of watchable TV?  Probably a question for XKCD, and people who don’t need to be AT work at 830 tomorrow.

Dropped the ball last night.  Wasn’t even that I didn’t have anything to say.  I got into bed around 11:45, and was reading my book (the new Stephen King – pretty good, but it’s making me tense with the timeline stuff in a way that Connie Willis has repeatedly NOT done) and did a facepalm because I’d forgotten to post.  Even after sleeping in until NOON-THIRTY, I was still spacey when going back to bed a mere twelve hours later.

Rode to and from work today.  Pretty good rides, but woof, I gotta remember to stretch for a while after riding, ’cause the number of times I literally said “oof” out loud when getting up was bordering on pathetic.  At least I’m still limber enough to stretch when I get into doing it.  My shoulders are pretty blown out (haven’t had a bad dislocation aside from the occasional poing for quite a while, if you don’t count me trying to do a somersault in the pool on the last day of our Disneyland trip.

And boom, just like that, I just bought Endomondo Pro for $3.99  I will now be able to chase my best time in either direction and my headphones will be telling me whether I’m pacing, leading, or trailing.  Oh, maybe

That’s one thing that the folks at the Apple Appstore got right – pricing.  MOST games are $2.99 or less.  Most applications for business are under $10.  Angry birds is less than a Starbucks coffee, and last I heard they had over 500,000 purchases.  Blackberry?  I love you, really I do, but I remember seeing a THEME for $35.00 once.  It’s ICONS and wallpaper, people.  I mean, c’mon.

My only hope for Blackberry now is that Google purchased Motorola, and Motorola makes the Blackberry guts (they, do, right? I’m not just making that up, am I?) so we’ll soon see Blackberry devices running Android.  With LED lights on them that change colours so I can tell from across the room which account that mail was from, or make disco lights if it’s my wife, or go silent when on my hip, and non-vibrate-y when on the table.  PLEASE DO THIS!  BUT!

BUT!

Figure out a way to make central management, control, and policy possible on Blackberry running Android, ’cause it just doesn’t exist on iPhone.  Someone highly-placed in my company calls me and says “omigod, someone just stole my iPhone, and all my data’s on it!” there’s really next to nothing I can do about it.  In my days at EA, I could have immediately locked and erased the device remotely, and left a note on the screen saying where to take the unit for reward.  iPhone?  You better have that “Where’s my iPhone?” application (and a friend with another iPhone to track it with) and be ready to face a desperate thief in a dark alley who thinks they’re holding something that’ll keep them in food/shelter for a week.  You want that fight?  I don’t.

Also, was listening to this thing the other day about “shadow work” and that now everyone with an iPhone has to provide their own technical support for it, because frankly, there’s not a lot an IT person can do to help you get set up with it, because hey, it’s yours, and techies don’t like play “last touchies” with your personal gear.  If I can’t tell you what NOT to do with it, how can it be my problem to fix it if it gets screwed up?  Shadow work is the work that used to be done by someone else, but now, in order to cut costs, you’re being asked to do it yourself.  Y’know, self-checkout and bag-your own groceries, and they were saying that cel phone support is shadow work, because so many people have their OWN phone, but use it for work, so they need to straddle work with home stuff on the same device, and sometimes they collide, and you end up having to fix your gear so it’ll do work stuff again.  Nothing really new, but now the owness (that’s the word, right?) is on you to fix it because it’s YOURS and nobody’s put anything on it, instead of you bringing your laptop in to work because “ever since you guys put that VPN software on my computer, it’s acting weird.”

Also, the Spokelit bike lights I have in my wheels (two in each, for that Tron-esque spinny look)?  They come in colours other than orange now.  SWEET!

Woke up early today.  Maybe early for me, at least.  6:55 and I was snapped out of a dream in which I was trying to get myself on transit to go somewhere, and was being carried by a throng of people in a way that my Aunt once described from when she was at a Bruce Springsteen concert and got caught in a press, and was moved along without her feet on the floor.  Same thing for me in this dream.  Decided to give up trying to get onto transit, and just ride my bike, because I knew where my bike would take me, even if it took me a long time to get there.

I think my legs are trying to tell me something.  Better than back in March, when my left calf tried to kill me.  I’ve got an appointment with my Dr. on the 30th to talk about my Xray, and the blood thinners, and the whole bit. Here’s hoping this NaBloPoMo ends on a high note.

Also, Born on the Fourth of July is on, so hey, let’s watch something happy.  Usually when Arwen’s out for the evening, I end up watching apocalypse movies.  Zombies, killer virus, nukes, etc.  Tonight though, some Saturday Night Live (rerun) some Almost Famous (amazing how much the camera loves Penny Lane in that film).

The kids and I went for a run to this odd store (two of them, actually) that has all the stuff that didn’t sell at Costco.  It’s so deeply weird in there.  It’s like the clearance table you sometimes see in places like Radio Shack, or Home Depot, only it has an entire warehouse-load of stuff.  The kids always look longingly at the video games for $12, and I have to remind them that yes, $12 is a lot less than the usual $39 for games they’d want to play, but look at what these games ARE, and think about why they didn’t sell the first time around.

Also have to remind them about what As-Is may or may not mean.  To look closely at what the stickers say.  To be fair though, that R2D2 for $65 looks pretty good when they sell for $199 on Hammacher Schlemmer, despite the “does not respond to voice commands” tag on it.  I figure it’d last a week here before the kids accidentally sent it down the stairs.

Long day, but a good one.  Rode in to work and felt like my legs remembered the hills on the way in.  It’s a bit of a deadhead run from our place on 67th up to the breaking point at somewhere between 41st and 33rd.  Wherever the RCMP offices are, right around there.  From there it’s all downhill.  Not great time, again, ’cause I’m nervous about ice, and haven’t been doing much riding lately, but I felt pretty good when I arrived.  I grabbed a shower at work (love that they have them, it’s really something you get used to when there’s been showers at whatever work for me since 2003.)

Full day at work.  All good stuff.  Not everything I wanted to do, but solved some stuff that clears the path for Monday.

The ride home was bitterly cold when I started out, but nice and warm by the time I’d crossed Chinatown out to Scienceworld.

Remember when AC/DC was a terrifying force of audio destruction?  Well, I just heard Back In Black used for a Walmart ad for Black Friday.  I’m not sure whether I find that funny, sad, or scary.  Maybe it’s all three.

Watching the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade special, and I gotta just say this real quick: I don’t care how many wheels are involved, if a balloon is on the ground, it’s a float.  If it’s got three wheels, or four, it’s NOT a “Balloonicle.”  If the entire vehicle was made OF balloons, then okay, maybe we’ll talk.

Watched Rise of the Planet of the Apes (RotPotA?) tonight, and it was pretty good. Pacing was decent, the animated stuff was pretty smooth, and aside from the occasional “More Brains Also Makes You A Superhero” problems, it held together nicely. Not the best movie I’ve ever seen or anything, but certainly one of the best prequels 20+ years after the fact.

Not like Your Highness. Holy crap. What were they even trying for? I’m not sure I’d even want to see what it was trying to borrow against. I’m pretty sure we got 18 minutes into the movie before we bailed out. As Arwen put it, “This sounds like it was written by a fifteen year-old.”  With some stupid special effects and a Zooey Deschanel that seemed like even she was tired of being in the movie after the first ten minutes.  Usually we’re pretty forgiving of just about any movie, no matter how vapid or silly. Last time we dumped out of a movie that wasn’t aimed at kids under the age of ten was… I think I have to go back to 15 Minutes back in the 90s.

Also heard a couple of tracks by Azealia Banks tonight, and the song “212” is as catchy as it is profane.  The swearing is so fast, so furious, and so catchy it’s almost subliminal.  Your brain hears that there’s swearing going on, but can barely keep up.  Think Missy Elliot at 20 from Harlem combined with Amanda Palmer also at 20, with crunchier percussion, grittier recording and some PIPES.  Can’t wait to see her break into the scene over the next year or so.  Looks like she’s had a few singles out since last year, but I think 212’s only been out for about two months, and is just getting picked up now, as the video has about 250,000 views and that’s 30,000 more than it was two hours ago.

Also, was having lunch with a friend, and we realized that we both navigate the compass points in Vancouver based on things like the Mountains (North) the Ocean (West) the Airport (South) and Burnaby (East).  Does everyone do that, or is it just us?  I mean, I know everyone SAYS NorthWest corner, but are they all thinking some form of MountainOcean corner?  What do people in cities without humongous horizon-filling landmarks do?

Today happened, and it all went pretty well, I think. Nothing really big happened, it just trundled along. These sorts of days are the worst for me for motivation, because there’s some relaxing time, and it’s possible to get lost doing small tasks. There can be things that distra-

Ooh, shiny!

Was listening to some new music during my commute today, and sometimes I just plow my way through something like an album just to see if maybe there’s some hidden gem in there, but mostly I go through the whole thing without actually listening to it, and that’s fine, because then it’s just wallpaper. The big problem is when I listen to something, don’t much really care for it, and then FORGET that I’ve heard it, and end up listening to it again in a week or so, because the album title is numeric due to it being one of the hojillion albums available for download at www.archive.org

This is especially common when it comes to experimental albums, because I tend to let it be the wallpaper it was intended to be, so I end up ignoring it for the most part, and then listening to it even more.

Wonder if that’ll happen with the new Kate Bush album, ’cause so far? Yeesh. I hope I’ll accidentally hear it enough times that I like it, but right now she sounds very close-range and low. I’m hoping. I really enjoyed some of the tracks from the last album (Pi, in particular, was inspired weirdness, like I like).

But right now, I have to show Arwen what happens when two kids get ahold of a five pound bag of flour.

Got soaked on the rides to/from work today, but made it. Will take tomorrow off (from cycling) but back at it again on Wednesday.

I’m watching the pilot of TerraNova. Blurgh. Soundtracking should be controllable with a separate volume control for those moments when the composer gets a little carried away and leaves the audience listening to “Endearing Moment Overkill Movement Six.”

Homebody day. Tried to get a laptop going, but it’s doing this weird overheating thing on the video card (common issue for this model, but no recall, because it’s more than a year old, so the manufacturer is basically saying “get a new one,” which is nice of them.)

Made some yummy lunch from leftovers, but copped out entirely for dinner, and got pizza from a place that does Indian food, too. Quite good, actually, even though the greek had green olives, and the taco had too much lettuce.

Gotta love Vancouver fusion foods.

I think a lot of what makes restaurants feel like they’re worth it is simply that they’re not what YOU would make, or at least not the way YOU’d make it. That’s worth money. I figure if someone started up a place called “surprise me” and did actual fusion foods, but then didn’t TELL you what you were eating. Instead of ordering stuff you think/know you’d like, you just give them a list of stuff you don’t like, or can’t eat:

“I’ll have the no raw onions, no organ meats, and no urchin.”
“And to not drink?”
“None of those weird carbonated yogurt things.”
“Gotcha.”

I mean, that’s gotta be doable, right? Probably 25 things on the menu could cover most of what people would generally avoid eating, right? Not for the faint of heart, but hey, that’d be fun. Of course, you’d be sorta screwed after that if you found something you really really liked, ’cause you’d never find it again anywhere else in the world. Maybe with the bill you’d get a quick list of what you ate, but no name for it.

Speaking of food, and eating it, and then burning it off again (ooh, nice segue, very subtle), it’s supposed to rain tomorrow, but be about 7 degrees out there (45 for my US readers). Not low enough to worry about ice, but chilly. I’m hoping to ride all the way in to work, but know that if I don’t pack up my stuff tonight (clothes for tomorrow, riding gear) I’ll probably choke tomorrow morning and not want to go. You’ll know tomorrow based on whether or not I post my numbers from the nifty GPS app I use when riding. Hope to try out my new bluetooth headphones, too (yes, I stay off the main roads: too many rage monkeys out there who don’t get that I’m allowed to be there, and am not close personal friends with that maniac who cut you off downtown last week and then put their hand on your hood to hold themselves up before riding off in their crocs and no helmet).

Wish me luck tomorrow. Nice quick ride to work, and that I can somehow magically get changed/showered without it taking 20 minutes. Seems that my rides are usually pretty quick for a 10k ride over the dinosaur-back that is the Marpole-to-Railtown commute, but I find that it takes forever to get showered/changed and into my workday after that.

Oh, and the software/tape thing I was having problems with last week? Got it figured out, but now it’s just the joyous cavorting that goes with feeding an LTO3 tape into a drive every 45 minutes or so. Once that’s done for SIXTY-something tapes, THEN I get to go digging in the indexes (indices?) and see if I can find the data I’m looking for from Summer 2010. Good times, good times. Lot of this sort of data spelunking is like trying to retell the plot of a dream that you heard third-hand.

Aside: Just watching Twilight Zone “Printer’s Devil,” from 1962, and there’s a moment in which the protagonist looks up a phone number in a paper phone book, and I wonder: How much longer before adults don’t know what a phone book was. How much longer before “I’m in the book” makes no sense whatsoever.

Kids these days, I tell ya.

Wish me luck tomorrow. Stepped on a scale today, and I’m going up, not down. I know: healthy at any size, don’t weigh yourself mid-day, and I “don’t look it,” and all that, but I also know that I’ve been feeling sluggish lately. Call it my Winter Coat, or whatever you want, but I think my “riding downhill only” to/from work on my bike has actually meant that I get less exercise than if I didn’t ride my bike to work, and just walked through Gastown twice a day. One thing about walking – you can’t coast downhill quite the same way.

Oh, and I have a Dr’s appointment on the 30th when we’ll look at my Xray and I’ll try to convince my GP that I don’t need blood thinners any more. It’d be a lot easier to convince HIM if I can first convince MYSELF that I’m not going to create/throw another blood clot ever again. First one wasn’t fun, I tell you what, so I don’t plan on doing it again, but still, not THAT much has really changed about my “lifestyle” since March, so I really want to get back on the old horse, as it were, and start doing some stuff that’ll keep the blood flowing nice & smoothly.

(He said, while sitting cross-legged on the couch for 30 minutes).

Tomorrow.