060413
Smoked Salmon Strips
060331
Trying to Write
050226
Market Day in Hamilton
index2004
back to 2003-2004
2006 03 31 Trying to Write
It started innocently enough. I got a very personal spam message. It was from one of the robot companies that monitor my site, and try to make money from it. It scanned my site, and found that a page, http://f1d0.com/chicken.htm, had a bad link in it.
It got me thinking. First, I don't remember writing anything called Chicken, so I had to go read it. It was a story I liked! Rather than just link to the stories I like, I copy the whole thing as text and save it, because you never know when the original site will go down or remove the page.
I looked at the index. That's the page that gets loaded when you go to F1D0 without anything after it. The last time I wrote was in 2005. I've always liked sharing the things in my head with you, and I have this domain, so why not try to talk to you again.
A lot has happened. Stuff to whine about, stuff to be happy about, stuff you may (or may not) want to hear.
I've been dating the same girl for the last nine months. Has it been that long? I wanted to share some of the first chat I had, but my message archive program has a bug, and won't let me copy-paste at all from it. I'll have to just retype it for you.
If a girl likes you, she notices you. Maybe her eyes move, probably not.
If a guy notices you, his eyes move.
Then his head moves.
Then he turns his whole body around.
Then he follows you halfway down the block.
Then his girlfriend catches him and hits him.
I wrote that 2005 06 22 at 1130pm. That's how long she and I have been talking!
In February I rented a new place, not far from the old one. I'm close to Sheppard Station now. The home used to be an office used by lawyers. I understand the owner of the home is a lawyer. I've not met him, but I met his daughter when she rented me the room here. It's a big room, with lots of storage space. Just as well! I have waay too much stuff. But the room is big enough for all of the things I have. I keep shelving units I'm not using in the garage outside, and clothes I'm still unpacking in the storage area in the upper bathroom.
I loved living with Jeff, but there were a lot of things I didn't do, and should have. Minor things! But still, I didn't do them, and they affected me. I have a large collection of movies I love to watch over and over. They're on VHS. I have a few DVDs, but the tapes seem to keep better. The DVD movies I have are aging and skip a lot, even if I don't watch them much. When I moved here, the TV in the living room had a DVD and a VHS player next to it. I set up the VHS player, and look!, I'm able to watch movies as I eat once again!!
I used to watch so much television, it occupied my life. I'd record Star Trek, ST Next Generation, ST Voyager, ST Deep Space Nine, and any other Star Trek (anything). I count 4 hours a day. I'd carefully pause during the commercials, and used good six hour tapes. I found I could get eight episodes on each, provided I didn't save the opening music nor the closing credits (I would save just enough, so I had the actor's names). When I went to Massachusetts, I stopped television entirely for the time I was there. And all of the tapes, or most of them, have been re-used in some way. Which is sad, since now I'd love to see some of the episodes I recorded.
Jeff got me hooked on PVRs. Anyone who is serious about television at all should consider such a device. I'll describe it for you now.
The PVR we used was made by Scientific Atlanta, and was built with a digital cable tuner for the Roger's network. It knew about all 1000 channels. It let us watch the ones we subscribed to, and gave us a digital message for ones that we had no rights to see. So far I'm just describing a digital cable tuner. This device has a hard drive inside it, so you can program it very easily to record your favourite programs. It can even save two during the same time period. It's that good.
So the way you watch television once you own a PVR changes. No longer are you forced to stay at home from 5pm until 9pm each night to catch your precious episodes. Instead, it does it quietly. When you want to watch, you tune channel 950. It shows a sorted list of all of the programs it has right now. You just think, and decide which of your favourite shows you want to watch. Unless the program is very timely, such as sports being shown live, this is perfect. You watch on your schedule, the things you want to see. Commercials? They are recorded too, but you can watch them at four times the regular speed, and in a few seconds, the show is back, and you probably even have to rewind it a few seconds. I think they've started modifying the ads so they still go into your head when watched at super speed.
So I'm hooked. When I get money for cable, and money for new toys, I'm getting a PVR. Thanks Jeff.
Jeff seems to like his new home, but misses Toronto. Toronto is easy to miss. It's so big, and has so many places to explore. A smaller town may only have a few such places, but this city has them everywhere. Most of Toronto is pedestrian friendly, and a good place to wander when you need to clear your mind and think. Ok, some of it is big box friendly, that is, plazas of huge factory stores where you need a car just to get from where you parked to the front entrance. But that isn't My Toronto. My Toronto is about a place where every twelve feet there is another storefront. Subway entrances are just a bit too far apart, so you have to walk five minutes more until you reach the next one. But that's not bad. My Toronto has small green places all over the place, and big green places every now and then. My Toronto has benches to sit on and fix your shoe. My Toronto has some kind of reliable fast food on every major corner, and probably every quarter mile.
The weather has changed from almost winter to springtime here. Almost winter was a very warm pleasant winter, but you still had to prepare for the worst. Today's forcast is 17C and thunderstorms, but the storms aren't here, just the good weather. Oh, 17C is about 64F. It's *NICE* out.
After walking around all afternoon, I'll go to the Spring Thaw Dance. I've not been dancing at all this year. I've worked almost every Wednesday, so I've missed scottish dancing. It ends this month. I've had issues with the local English Dancing (so have others, so the dance died away). I guess I've had issues with the Contra Dancing too. But I'll put all of that aside for tonight. I've not seen these people in ages, and it's time to go say hello. I'll have to find a spare pair of shoes, as street shoes aren't kosher.
Normally, I'd be sleeping in the 4h before my work shift, but tonight I'll dance, and in the morning I'll get home and recover. If it is a good dance, I'll do it again for Saturday night and Sunday afternoon. If there is news to share, I'll write about it.
I was worried about my liver being too fatty, and went to the doctor last month to check into it. My symptoms over the years has been exceptional sleepiness after eating. Also an oversize gut. But the bloodwork didn't show any problems. So I dunno. My folks are on my case to slim down, or die young. Dad isn't kind to me when he talks to me. Which is too bad, because I care for him, but can't stand being treated badly either. He just got his second cold laser treatment for his eyes. It's not really a laser they use, but they inject you with a dye that makes your tissue respond to blue light. Then you go into the hospital, and they shine bright LEDs with mostly blue light in them into your eyes, effectively making a sunburn-- Inside your eyeball. Maybe it will help. He experienced some discomfort this time around.
I've been making rice almost daily. Today I'm making "soup mix" with it, that is, the dried legumes that need a lot of boiling to get soft. I've added some wild rice to it. We'll see how it comes out. I still need to figure out what kind of meat to take with me.
Ok, it's time to shower and get ready for today. Maybe I'll get a haircut before I do other things.
