63 Random Facts

As seen on Andy’s LiveJournal

1) How old do you wish you were?
Sometime between when my brother left for the army and stopped torturing me, and when my knee pain got so bad I had to give up orienteering, cross country skiing, backpacking, canoeing, etc. Probably first year university was best – 19 years old, in the best physical shape of my life, got my silver Courier de Bois in the Canadian Ski Marathon, 7th in the North American Orienteering Championships, hardly a weekend went by when I wasn’t doing something active.

2) Where were you when 9/11 happened?
Talking to my therapist. Somebody phoned her to tell her that a plane had just flown into the WTC, and I didn’t understand, I thought it must be a small plane accident, not a purposeful act. I never connected it with the fact that I was supposed to call Julie Z after noon because she was going to be out of the office in the morning. It wasn’t until I got to work that I found out where Julie was – 102rd floor of WTC 1.

3) What do you do when vending machines steal your money?
Get mildly annoyed. Call the service number if there is one.

4) Do you consider yourself kind?
Not as kind as I wish I was.

5) If you had to get a tattoo, where would it be?
I’d like to get a maple leaf tatooed over my heart. I don’t feel like I can get US citizenship until I have the physical reminder that my heart belongs to Canada.

6) If you could be fluent in any other language, what would it be?
French. I am still sorry that I never picked it up living in Quebec.

7) Do you know your neighbors?
Many of them. I know more about my neighbours in a year of living in this neighbourhood than I did living 10 years in my previous neighbourhood.

8) What do you consider a vacation?
I used to consider a week hiking the Western Uplands Hiking Trail in Algonquin Park, or going to a week long orienteering festival, or anything involving a tent and some physical activity a vacation. Don’t do those things any more. The best vacations I’ve had in recent years where the 5 days I spent at Oshkosh 2003, and the cruise Vicki and I had in Alaska.

9) Do you follow your horoscope?
No, I don’t even read the horoscopes in The Onion or BB Spot.

10) Would you move for the person you loved?
I did. I get homesick for Canada when I’m here, and I get homesick for the person I love when I’m there.

11) Are you touchy feely?
No. One of my male friends is a hugger, and it sort of makes me uncomfortable. And then I get uncomfortable about the fact that I’m uncomfortable.

12) Do you believe that opposites attract?
There is nothing rule based about attraction.

13) Dream job?
I’d like to stay home and write software, but I don’t know if I’m disciplined enough to do it.

14) Favorite channel(s)?
History Channel, BBC America, etc. Man, I wish I could get CBC here. I miss “This Hour Has 22 Minutes” and “Corner Gas”.

15) Favorite place to go on weekends?
Mostly I just like to veg out and recover. I never get enough sleep.

16) Showers or Baths?
Showers.

17) Do you paint your nails?
No comment.

18) Do you trust people easily?
Sometimes too much. Sometimes not enough. It’s a hard balance to strike.

19) What are your phobias?
That my kids won’t be able to recover from my bad parenting skills.

20) Do you want kids?
Have two, don’t want any more.

21) Do you keep a handwritten journal?
Never.

22) Where would you rather be right now?
Asleep.

23) Who makes you feel warm and fuzzy?
Vicki.

24) Heavy or light sleeper?
Mostly heavy, I think.

25) Are you paranoid?
No, people really are out to get me.

26) Are you impatient?
With people, yes. I try to not be, but it’s a long process.

27) Who can you relate to?
People with open minds.

28) How do you feel about interracial couples?
Mostly it makes me ashamed that I still have some residual racism deep down inside.

29) Have you been burned by love?
Oh yeah.

30) What’s your favorite pick-up line?
“The kids are at their dad’s tonight.”

31) What’s your main ring tone on your mobile?
Fur Elise

32) What were you doing at midnight last night?
Sleeping. Not very well.

33) What did the last text on your cellphone say?
“On the ground in Raleigh. Now to find where I’m staying.”

34) Whose bed did you sleep in last night?
My own.

35) What color shirt are you wearing?
Off white.

36) Most recent movie you watched?
Over the Hedge.

37) Name three things you have on you at all times?
Combined Cell phone/pda, wallet, keys.

38.) What color are your bed sheets?
You mean I’m only supposed to have one set?

39) How much cash do you have on you right now?
About $25 US, and about $15 Canadian.

40) What is your favorite part of the chicken?
Wings. In Buffalo sauce.

41) What’s your favorite town/city?
Ottawa.

42) I can’t wait till:
I can stop feeling bitter about things.

43) Who got you to join LJ?
Vicki

44) What did you have for dinner last night?
Cheese fondue.

45) How tall are you barefoot?
6’2″

47) Do you own a gun?
Not any more. Used to own a few rifles.

48) What do you prefer to drink in the morning?
Tea.

49) What is your secret weapon to lure in the opposite sex?
Blissful self-unawareness.

56) Where do you think you’ll be in 10 yrs?
Doing what I’m doing now, or unemployed.

57) Last thing you ate?
Pulled pork from Dinosaur Barbecue.

58) What songs do you sing in the shower?
Hardly anything – I hate my own voice.

59) Last thing that made you laugh?
Over The Hedge was a surprisingly funny movie.

60) Worst injury you’ve ever had?
Probably the most painful thing that ever happened to me was getting penile frostbite in a cross country ski race at -40C.

61) Does someone have a crush on you?
Doubt it.

62) What’s your favorite candy?
I don’t get to eat my real favourites any more because of my sugar intolerance, but I currently love wasabi almonds.

63) What song do you want played at your funeral?
“Rise Again”, Stan Rogers. No, I don’t really know.

Suggestion for Apple

I’d like to make a suggestion for Apple: If you’re going to sell an HP Printer/Scanner/Copier PSC 1510, you should make sure that HP bundles drivers THAT WERE WRITTEN IN THIS FUCKING CENTURY! No shit – I hit the “Scan” button, and it launched “Classic”, the backwards compatibility program that allows it to run programs written for the old OS 9. It then fired up some limited edition of an ancient version of Photoshop.

Come on, you guys.

The Computer Doctor strikes again

As reported in Rants and Revelations : The Computer Doctor is IN, I did some major disk swappery when Stevie’s iBook died a few months ago. I put Stevie’s hard drive in Vicki’s iBook, and Vicki’s hard drive in a 15″ Powerbook Titanium that she borrowed from work. Well, Stevie graduated, and as a graduation present she was given a MacBook. So it’s time to reverse the surgery, putting Vicki’s hard drive back in her iBook, and the original hard drive back in the Powerbook.

Time to haul out the Torx and Phillips screw drivers, and most importantly the Fixit Guilde.

Putting the hard drive back in the Powerbook is pretty straight forward, except taking the ide cable off the hard drive is a little brute force for my liking. Only 9 screws, all the same head and general size. And after a little coaxing and swearing, it went back together and booted.

Putting the hard drive back in the iBook is a real pain in the ass. Lots of fiddly crap, including a bit where it says

Breathe deeply. Trying times are ahead, but we promise the lower case does come off.

and another bit where after about 30-45 minutes of work, you get to the bit where it says

Remove the following 16 screws:

But at least they put handy little loops on the ide cables so that they could be removed without bending any pins.

In progressThis is about that stage. (As you can see, I’m a firm believer that a clean organized desk is obviously a pre-requisite for doing good work.)

Actually, it was a lot easier having done this a few times now. But I still held my breath as I booted it up and make sure the fiddliest bits, the trackpad and speaker cables got hooked up correctly and it boots properly. And it did! Yay for me!

While dis-assembling and assembling this iBook, several of the Torx screws were getting very rounded off – I had a hell of a time removing one or two of them. I have my doubts that I’ll be able to get the screws off again. I guess next time it breaks, Vicki will have to get a MacBook too.

Product Review: Innopocket Hard Case for Palm Treo

After wrecking my Treo at Pinckneyville, I decided the replacement (that goodness I bought insurance on it) needed a bit more protection. I got the Innopocket Magnesium Case for Palm Treo.

The case appeared to be ideal, with strong clear plastic over the screen and strong magnesium everywhere else important. Even better, the case has a good double hinge so you can get the front out of the way to use the whole device. The reviews warned me about one drawback – there is a nubbin on the back to clip into the belt clip, and when you fold back the front the nubbin touches the clear screen protector. And sure enough, there is a bit of a wear mark there. But then again, better wear on a replaceable case than on the Treo itself.

The design of the case seems to have placed a premium on access to all the extraneous bits of the phone, like the SD card and the camera. That can be handy at times. But it has also lead to a couple of drawbacks:

  • The SD card keeps popping out. Especially when the phone pops out of the belt clip and drops on the ground.
  • There isn’t anything along the top to secure the phone in place if the hinge opens, which has lead on more than one occassion to the phone dropping on the floor.

The belt clip is an interesting design and works pretty well, except when the clip itself falls off my shorts.

Not a complaint about the case itself, but more a simple observation: a couple of times I’ve forgotten that the case was closed and attempted to “touch” on the touch screen. Doesn’t work through the screen protector.

In summary: I like the case, and can overlook the small flaws. I hope it will protect the Treo, especially since Cingular cancelled my insurance for having the temerity for making a claim against it.

Basso!

Ivan Basso’s performance on this year’s Giro d’Italia leave no doubt in my mind who the real inheritor of Lance Armstrong’s mantle is. It looks like he’s going to try for the impossible – back to back wins in the Giro and le Tour, and if anybody can do it, he can. In a way it amazes me that a team from Denmark of all places can be so dominant in the mountains, but Basso had much better support in the mountains in the Giro than Armstrong had in last year’s Tour. Last year it seemed that whenever there was a mountain stage after a flat one, Discovery would get caught flat footed when the peleton broke up, leaving Armstrong alone without support. But Basso always seemed to have another rider or two until the crux of the stage.

It’s not as good as watching it on TV, but I’ve been following the race thanks to live.cyclingnews.com, and when away from the computer, using their WAP equivalent on my Treo. I think next year I’m going to spring for the money and get OLN’s webcast version. I didn’t do it last year because it was just the bare tv feed with no commentary, and because it required a Windows computer. This year they seem to have added commentary, and it works on Macintosh computers, but I didn’t go for it because I wasn’t sure if it was worth the money. But I’ve spent more for less, so next year I think I’m going to try it.