Motorcycle Diaries

The other night Laura and I saw Motorcycle Diaries at World Exchange. I thought that it's a really great film. I had no idea about any of the background story, only knowing that it took place in 1952 and was true / based on a true story. I think that it's great for every thing in the story to be new and exciting without expecting parts to come up. It's a forign film, so there are subtitles... but it's fine.

It's very different than the thriller movie The Forgotten which was an excellent movie, except for the trailers about it. Don't get me wrong, but the trailers are wonderfully put together except for the fact that they spoil the movie. Don't watch the trailers!!! The things that should have had a HUGE impact I was just waiting for the moment that things were going to happen. The one that I just watched on the "official site" gave away every cool part... cut things together not how they happened. I really feel sorry for the director and everyone who worked hard on that because the best parts are given away. That must be frustrating.

So, I won't spoil Motorcycle Diaries for you by telling you more than I have already, other than to go see it. ;-) Don't read on if you have not seen it...

One of the characters in the movie was Ernesto Guevara. I had no idea who he was. I really felt bad by the level of my ignorance of the world's history. But that's one good thing about having watched the movie, now I want to learn more. ;-)

Funny when I don't like watching the news though...

Vote for the American election

Laura pointed out to me a place where the rest of the world can vote for the american election (globalvote2004.org). I think that this sort of goes along with the discussions on Ryan's blog. While it may seem really good that there might be a public place for people to "vote", I think that this might be a bad place to do it. Why? It's easy to "ballet stuff" with an online poll. But that's only if American's as a whole care what the world thinks.

That probably is a dangerous point by itself too. What if everyone in the world said that they felt that Bush was the best person to be elected? Would they vote for Kerry just as a big FU to the world? Or vise versa?

They are the only country that we share a border with, and I am still confused by how Americans act and think. And I don't know why there is such a significant difference... is it just the information that they are provided in the news?

I feel today I have brought up more questions than answers.

myFamily++

Tonight at 5:20 my eldest brother and his wife had their 3rd child, a healthy boy of 7 lb 9 oz. I'm not sure what the name is. What I heard was Alexander. I'll be updating that one. And just think, 14 years ago I didn't have any family here. Now we're... uhh... like 17 or 18 in Ottawa. Nice.

On a totally unrelated note, I went to GTEC where I picked up some great swag. Bell was giving things out like beaners / flashlight / compass and headset for your cell phone (which I need). I really like the cell phone headset and it seems to work well. Other than the free stuff from the show had some really cool stuff there, but it's purpose is for government departments to share the tech stuff that they are working on and for private companies to show the government people what they have to offer. Pretty cool all around.

A sweet pair of breasts

I was really happy with what Laura and I had for dinner tonight and I just thought that I would share 'cause I think that it was pretty easy to make, even when we both aren't feeling well.

1. Raw carrots: there nothing easier than eating veggies straight out of the bag.
2. Sweet potato: I boiled it till I should stick a fork in it part way. Then I peeled it (pretty easy, the skin sort of fell off), sliced it into ~1 cm thick pieces, put in in a small glass container, sprinkled it with some brown sugar and a splash of OJ. Then I covered it with some foil, placed in the oven at 400F and forgot about it. It was probably in there for 30-45 minutes.
3. Chicken breasts: I thawed some chicken in the microwave and then sprinkled with some garlic powder, salt, and a little bit of pepper. Now here is the cool thing: I took a pear, chopped it up, splashed some OJ on it (so it didn't turn brown and nasty), sprinkled some "all spice" and cinnamon, and then added some fresh chopped ginger.
4. Cooking: I cooked the the chicken in a pan on medium heat, and after I turned it once I dumped in the pear on top (and I added too much water). I just cooked that down till it reduced and then served.

It was very good and I don't think that it took too much effort at all. The only thing that I didn't like was doing the sweet potato. I used a pot and a dish to cook it in. I like it better when I use at most once dish per item. It's better to do the whole thing in one pot though... can you tell that I used to be a dish washer long ago?

Sooo coool!!!

It's finally here! I can search my computer using google (desktop). Kick ass! Now I won't have to be bothered by the really crappy search in WinXP. Oh happy day!

I thought that it was secure

Well, just when you think that they have come up with a good solution, it seems that it's not the perfect one after all. It looks like WEP which is used for wireless networks around homes, offices, etc. isn't secure. It's even stated that in the wikipedia article... *sigh*

What does this mean now? Does this mean that whenever I want to do anything like online banking I should be wired and disable my Wi-Fi connection? I'm not totally clear if your network is broken if that means that people can read your ssh / https traffic. I would guess not, but I'm confused about that. Does anyone know?

Hotmail's up

It looks like hotmail has now been increased to 250 MB for the free accounts. Aleks had his upped earlier, but when I had checked it mine wasn't. What is this, like 3 months late? Ah well. Either way it's still less than what I get from gmail, and without the kick-ass google UI experience.

Shhhh! We're hunting rabbits!

It's late. It's dark. I can't for the life of me get to sleep. The whole place is quiet except for the occasional sound of someone getting on / off the elevator on my floor. The only reason why I know is 'cause it makes a wirrl-pause-wirrl sound.

On another note, I think that I figured out what the construction by hurdman and Riverside is. It seems to be watermain installation. I wonder if they are going to be putting in a bike path there like someone said, or if that it just rumour.

On a slightly related note, does everyone know about the OC Transpo Travel Planner. It seems to work very well. It's something that would be really kick ass if they would let you download it and put it in your PDA or something. That's something that every city could use. Imagine just taking that app and selling it to a bunch of different cities? Let people download it and use it? That would be so good. That's one of the arguments about "giving away" software: if it's not part of your core business, why restrict assess to it? Their whole business is to get more people on the bus. If they would let anyone with a palm / whatever be able to make a simple query on their palm and it display some times / routes, I think that would encourage more people to use the bus. Baby steps I guess....

Picket lines

On my way in to work today I was wondering why the buses were super slow. I thought it was just a little different than normal. Nope, it's because there's a strike on. Some people I know were tied up in the picket lines for 5, 10, or 15 minutes. Aleks was there for 30. I sort of pushed past them on a side entrance when they were looking the other way and when they stepped in my way I just walked around them. I was snuffly and in no mood to get stuck outside talking to people bitching about getting more pay.

When they tell you about "having to stick together for solidarity", it just feels hollow when you receive none of the same benefits that they do. I am sure that I would feel differently if I was an employee, but I'm not, so I don't.

Jimbo Jones, back on the air

I've been laying low this last week... mostly because I've been fighting a battle with a cold. I think that at this point I have won, but it's not a decisive victory.

Now that I actually have an internet connection that's worth using, and a laptop that allows me to sit where I want, today I went out and got a wireless router. So, now I can sit in my bed and blog. Ah, the joys of it all. The only thing that I'm not so hot about is the card for my laptop sticking out the side... ah well. There's nothing that I can do about that though.

Today's been a day of experiments. A first test of Jim's Chilly (no fatalities so far), drilling in the wall (I think that I'll get the apartment people to finish... they asked us not to do it by ourselves anyways...), and cutting of my hair in our kitchen. It's nice and short, and the cost of the tools were just over what a "regular" hair cut would run me. Yay Walmart! And I think that it provided Laura with enough amusement cutting off my hair. But I'm still as strong as I was before, unlike some. ;-P

Don't let your picture ID expire

Today I had a bit of a frustrating day. This morning I ran the run for a cure (It was supposed to be 5 km, but was more like 4... and SO many people it was insane). That was cool. Laura and I had taken a bus there, so we hopped on a bus on the way home.

Well, at the end of last month my student picture ID expired, so I got a new adult pass. I was going to get a new adult picture ID, but it wasn't really high on my priority list. So, I got on the bus to go home from the run, and the driver stopped me. He took my pass, invalidated my 63 $ monthly pass (telling me that I would get a new one when I got a new picture), and gave me a day pass. He wanted me to pay on the spot (!?!), but I didn't have any money. Hell, I still had my race number pined to my shirt. Grrrr...

So, I went home, got cleaned up, (took a nap), and went back to Rideau where the only place that was doing picture ID's today was open. The line was loooong. It took me 45-50 minutes to get my new picture. Not that I am annoyed. Oh no. Not that it was a big pain in the ass. Oh no. Oh wait, I am and it was. :-|

Still, even with all that, it was my own fault. But I'm still pissed off.

Lessoned learned

One thing that I have really figured out lately is asking people for data in the proper format. If you are going to do anything automated with the data, it's going to be a bad thing if you give them flexability. Restrict the input options as much as possible and you will save yourself time.

Here's an example: if you wanted a people to give you their address and you sent them an excel spreadsheet with columns that you would like them to fill out. Your plan was to use this data and put it in a database. The biggest problem with this scenario is giving them an excel spreadsheet with that has no restrictions. It would be much better to whip up a quick VB form on an Access database and have them enter in things in the form. You'd spend maybe a couple of hours making that form / db, but you would save yourself days later on.

The leason here is to make sure you make things are restrictive for user input as required, even if it will be "processed" by a person. People will be as different as you allow them to be, not through spite, but just that's how people are.