Talked to the Brent-dude at the gym again today to clarify the things that K mentioned ("He's full of shit" was pretty much what she said :) about slow run being better for you (fat wise) than a fast hard run. I independantly confirmed the fullofshitidness of this in a couple of books/sites as well. Well, he clarified a bit, and said that yes, you burn more sugar calories doing a fast run then a slow one, and maintains that you still burn more fat calories in a slow one (60% vs 50% or something like that), but what he uses the slow run for is off-day exercises. IE: He works with people three days a week or so, and on the off days gets them to do the fast-walk thing, allowing them an "easy" day, but still doing lots of good things for the body. That cool K?

Two clear dreams for ya'll...

I was on the first manned trip to mars with another guy. We made it there and laneded, and upon initial investigation we found (small) trees on the surface. In investigating farther we found a huge scary monster on the top of a mountain, who if I remember right was a bit like a minator, and was eating people who were either fleeing him or heading up towards him. He was like a volcano, consuming everything that was thrust into his gaping maw.

Eventually we found abandoned buildings, hundreds of thousands of them, and hospital beds as well, all arranged togeather so that the houses were on one side, the beds on another. They were all abandoned. We eventually found people as well, and a lady tells us that there is an epidemic that is making everyone die. It starts with muscle soreness (she used another word for it though, starting with an "a") as the first symptom. I'm not feeling any soreness, but tell the person I'm with that I think it's time to go. By the time I convince him I am feeling sorness in my calves.

The other one happened right after, while I was dozing after waking up in the morning, and was (IMHO) far more bizzare.

I rode bike down the hill from my parents home to Albion school (I was in grade 7 there). It was as it is now (or was), but the addition was that there was now a lake in the front of it, in the top right part of the front of the school-yard. People lined the road, the lake... they were everywhere, as it was a hot hot day. When I got there I found my group of people and hung out for a bit. After a bit I realized that I'd forgotten my swim-shorts, and had to ride back up to my folks place to get them. I went over to the change room kinda place to put my sweat pants back on, as I needed them to ride back for some reason. Before I left the group though, one of the members, strangely enough, Harvy Lipschultz from the show Boston Public asked me if I could grab his shorts from his room as well.

While in the change room someone else comes in that I recognize as Krista L. from elementry and high school, who looks and sounds (from the way she's bashing things around) like she's had a bad day. From the way she's dressed she works at a burger joint of some sort. I ask her how she's doing and she replies "Not good at all, I've gotten to the point where I write essays for fun."
"Why do you do that?"
"It takes time, if I can spend 5 minutes protesting or writing I will, just because it can take time up."

I am looking through a paper in the other room (I'm still changing) and see something in in, and ask her about her grandfather, and what he did. "He worked on the railway around '11."
"Well, there is something in the paper that might interest you, let me finish getting un-naked [yes, I used that term] and I'll show the article to you."

The article was a "write about your grandfather" contest, which got people to write an essay about their grandfather and what he did during his life. However, I don't know how that ended up, as it was right about then that the dream ended.

I'd guess that those two dreams would be a gold mine for anyone who knows anything about dream analysis :)

Last night foz came over to try some of firefly's wonderful rhubarb pie, and tried (again) to convince me to get my head shaved with him. I've known he's been thinking about this for a while, and now he wants to do it this coming Saturday. The scary thing is, I'm almost warming up to the idea. Here's the list of pros and cons:

Pros:

• It's almost summer, long hair gets hot in summer.
• Based on Del's experience today (he had to get his hair cut for a job interview where they may or may not like the long haired hippie folks), it can look good.
• At least two independant people have said they think that I could "pull off" having no hair.
• I don't need long hair to pick up chicks anymore.
• Having no hair and saying it's because you donated it to an organization that makes wigs for children with cancer would be a huge chick magnet anyway.
• Apparently I look like a dork now, so there's really no point in arguing the "I don't want to look like a dork" angle.
• No hair + goatee = badass look.
• Less shampoo/conditioner/haircareproductsingeneral.
• Less long hair blocking the drain, getting everywhere, etc.
• Can drive with the windows down for extended periods of time without making "phpt, phpt" noises while spitting stray strands out of my mouth.

Cons:

• I've had long hair since grade 11 (that'd be around 1992 folks).
• Only one or two people that I know now, other than my parents have any idea what I look like with short hair, and those it's only because they somehow got a hold of my high school yearbooks.
• Sunburn on the scalp.
• Didn't want to shave my head until I started going bald.
• What if my head is full of weird and odd shaped bumps? No one really knows what their head looks like, cause it's normally covered with hair.
• Don't want to look like a dork again.
• I try to avoid shaving my face more than once or twice a week, no way I want to have to shave my whole head that often! (I'd probably let it grow and and then style it as it grew longer though).
• I'd loose my membership in the longhair club.... granted, if foz does it, the long hair club will only be me and solas, who I know will never get rid of his (down to ass by now I'm sure) hair. He's in Edmonton anyway.
• Everyone I see for the next few months (years) will have to have the reasons explained again, and again, and again, and will have to go through the "oh my god!"
• Sobs from everyone who loved the long hair.

So no, no decisions yet, but I'm definately thinking about it. Might be an interesting change anyway. But potentially dangerous thing to let happen as well.

Don't worry, whatever I choose I'll get before and after pictures for you scoobyD :)

Speaking of which (scoobyD, this is to you too), some thoughts about going to see Episode II in digital next weekend were thought of, after the head shaving (as a reward or something).

How about a preview?

Before

After

Scary huh? You people who say I can pull it off still think so? Oh, and even worse, without trying too the count of pros and cons are 10 to 10, so I can't even just count and decide!

12:44pm

I got home around 11:30pm and sat down and chatted with people online for a few hours, wrote up a node about Soul Miner's Daughter, played with KMail a bit (it's not bad, but the pgp/gpg handling is a bit shakey, especially on signed messages sent by mutt. I'll keep at it for a bit, as now I'm filtering my mail on the server I can play with different clients and see which one works best for me. End result of all this, I was up late enough that the birds started chirping (those happy little bastards!), hence my getting up at noon :)

I think today I'm going to veg, watch TV and movies, and maybe head into town to Radio Shack, as I heard an intruiging ad on the radio about "DAB", Digital Audio Broadcasting, where they can send CD quality sound to the radio, along with data such as song information, lyrics, etc. Sounded kinda funky. I wonder how they are dealing with the implications of people... I mean, those horrible cheap pirates, recording the music or capturing the lyrics. You just know the RIAA wants to suck us dry a bit more.

Speaking of the RIAA, I'd like to bitch for a second about Silver City. Yes, they have the best theatres, but they do so at a cost, and the costs are everywhere. Lets review:

• Higher ticket cost
• Higher cost for popcorn / pop (a medium popcorn and medium pop are (last time I looked) $10.50 CND
• Plus - mini restaurants in the lobby (pizza hut, etc). Minus - hugely over-priced
• Food places don't take interac, but there is a cash machine in the lobby... except it's one of those that charges you an extra cost each time you use it
• Ads shown at the start of the film, annoyingly so, of their "sponsors"

Now I realize that they need to get back costs for building the place, but over the period of a year the ticket cost went up at the Langely Collosus went from $8 (just before Episode 1 was released) to $9 (the night Episode 1 was released), to $12.50 sometime later in the year. I don't know about other places, but the Mission Silver City cost has gone back down a bit (I only go there on matinees), but still. Ok, done bitching, time to start the day.

9:37am

Most of my day today was spent at the wedding for Kelora and WNight, which was very cool. The theme was medievil, so most everyone dressed up, with some looking more awsome than others. I spent nearly a full film on it, so as soon as the cats do something amusing, I'll take it in to be processed, and post the pictures somewhere here for ya'll. It was a nice and relaxed wedding, in almost perfect weather, except for the pollen aggravating my allergies. The finale was a nice reception at a friends home, with tons and tons of great food.

A fair amount of the rest of today was spent working on redoing some of the stuff on the main page of this site, which I'm taking a wild guess that no one really visits. Last time the frontpage was updated was nearly two years ago, and a lot of the content in the 'about' type pages was just completely out of date (I was just working at NetMaster apparently). I've put it into a hopefully more easy-going, and amusing style, mixing rambling narrative with links to various files I've found, created, or stolen over the years.

Wow, busy couple of days. On thursday, a bunch of people got togeather to go to the Episode II matinee. For anyone who hasn't gone yet, or is hesitant due to thinking that Episode I sucked, GO! (Warning, potential spoilers ahead).

The movie finally gets it right I think. There were some sucky bits (the love stuff they threw in) that really just got in the way of the ass kicking, but other than that it was fantastic. We got introduced to many more varied and interesting worlds, and for some places, got to see a lot deeper in than the quick look we had before.

There were a lot more people as well, and different people. A fair number of them were complete CGI. This time though, they didn't feel as forced and out of sync with the rest of the movie like they did in Episode I. Sometimes they didn't seem quite "there" (the dude in the diner for example), but for the most part, they went in completely un-noticed as anything other than another character in the movie. A lot was learned as well... some people's origins (Boba Fett for example), and a bunch of events we knew were going to happen somewhere/somehow, but weren't quite sure exactly when or how.

The best part though, was the abundance of ass kicking, lightsaber wielding, ship racing, kick ass scenes. Finally we get to see more than one Jedi fight, and we get to see Yoda show why he is so revered and respected by the Jedi. Ships racing through asteroid belts, through crowded city skies, etc etc. The list goes on and on.

Just go see it.

What else has happened here lately. I've been working on the contract for Yohimbe, which has been going well. There was actually a significant amount of progress made yesturday, and things are shaping up quite well. With a deadline of monday or tuesday, things'll be busy for a couple of days, but all should go well. One sticker in the whole thing is we have a wedding to go to for Kelora and WhiteKnight, it's in about four hours from now, so eventually I have to get up and get ready. I'm really glad it's not a formal type wedding, and I can go simply slightly nicer than normal clothes :)

Read a bit about GeoCaching on Wil Wheaton's site. Sounds like a lot of fun, and there are actually a few caches locally. Anyone mind giving me a GPS?

The kitten.... oh yes, the kitten. While she is adorable of course, she seems to have been making it the goal in her fuzzy life to get to the highest places in the apartment lately. Be in the top of the screen door, the screen on the bedroom window, the top bookshelf in the living room, the top shelf in the bathroom, or the top of the door of the bathroom.... Sometimes she'll get to the top and look at you and simply squeak, especially if she's gotten somewhere where couldn't have gotten without your "help" (ie: jumping onto your back while you're brushing your teeth and then leaping from there to the top of the door). Luckily she's still a very small cat (or is it kitten... I think she's about 6-8 months old now), so she hasn't destroyed too much. I cringe to think what would happen if Rex (the 14-16 pound beast) decided to do that!

Had a "Nerdvana" moment yesturday. Myself, coding at my desk, Foz beside me, reading me items to work on, talking to Yohimbe, sitting on my couch with a laptop, coding away on other things. Ah, bliss......

Nothing yet with Jammicron. They're waiting for word back from their client, whom they'd bill me out to I guess, but hopefully they'll hear back soon.

Woke up this morning from a nightmare of sorts.

We were all going to the Episode II screening in the Mission theater after work, except it was really a Maple Ridge theater... I drove myself and Firefly there in a big panel van, the kind that UPS uses for deliveries. We got there and stood in line, and I tried to get a hold of Cat5. I never did get a hold of him, but he showed up eventually, after I went looking for him. When it finally came time that the doors had opened we found out that the place only took cash, so we had to go and find someplace with a money machine. The lady kindly informed us that the strip club up the street had one. For some reason I had brought my kitten with me, and had to find a place to keep her while we were in the movie. I put her in what was left of the van (it was pushed over and destoyed by some hoodlums while in the parking garage). I tried to arrange the remains so she couldn't escape out until we got back. This made me quite distraught.

Crazy old cat man indeed!

We are however, going to see Episode II today. Heading for the noon showing, aiming to leave here around 10:30. I hope that it's not too crowded, as we have no real idea how busy it will be!

I think I spent half the night about that and half the night about how I'm going to filter all my mail on the server with procmail and move my mail client from Evolution to mutt.

I woke up at 6am, then 8am (the latter when my big black cat came and sat on my chest, dug his huge claws into my chin and said in his own way "You will pet me now!"

9:00am

This is what I remember...

There were a couple of distinct parts... the first of which was being in a huge boarding school. While there, one morning I went to go to the hot tub. There were three floors, and each had a hot tub and pool, and each had it's own heat level. I went to the one on the second floor, not too hot, not too cold. On my way there, there was an announcement that I partially heard, something about ignoring classes and going home. I didn't hear it really well though, so I asked a couple of people who I saw while in the hot tub (which wasn't many, which I found odd). When I was done I headed back and on my way back passed by an assembly with a lot of teachers and students. They were saying that last night a werewolf had attacked, and the result of which I don't remember...

I think I might have seen the werewolf, but even in my dream I don't remember. It might have been just a wolf that had wandered into the school. Hard to rememeber.

Thus starts part two, mostly connected, no idea what the events from part one to this are.

I was doing homework, on the first part of which was on the first chapter of a book of some sort. I was in the middle of getting the computer set up to use a word processor to do the report (this was not my first choice for some reason). The weird part was that I was doing it on top of a tank. Firefly was there, as was Fozbaca, who was bugging me to get finished so he could use either the tank or the computer.

What a nightmare eh?

12:30am

Thinking of converting from my current mail client of evolution and going to/back to mutt and procmail. VFolders are undeniably cool, but some of evolutions features (including some strangeness in the GPG/PGP handling), as well as some things that are simply signs of it being an early generation mail client, without the ability to say, show you a total of the messages in a folder, only the "new" messages, kinda sucks. I like vfolders because I can make then and change them as I feel like it... but they can be/are slow, and a bitch to deal with sometimes.

The interview on Friday went well. Jammicron is a small basement type operation, catering to mom and pop shops as a "full IT solution". It sounds like they are in need of someone who knows things like security, VPNs, and firewalls to do some implementation for them. Hey, guess what, that's me! I don't know if it'll be enough to live on however, and if the rate of work they get for me will be able to sustain my standard of living. Of course, it'll be work, and it'll be neat to do the same thing I was doing before, but from the other side so to speak. I guess we'll see on monday. The funny thing is, when they described the project they had in mind, the first thing that came to mind was "you need a Merilus Firecard." A bit high end for the application as they manage everything, so there is no need for such prettiness and ease of use, but still...

Advice from Brad:

Now that made my Laugh Out Loud :)

I just send this off to the wankers at Columbia House:

Just got back from the gym. I've been going pretty much every second day, and going for a fast walk of 35-50 minutes every other day, despite evidence presented by K. To satisfy her though, I've moved my warm-up run in the gym from a moderate paced (6-6.8mph) 20 minute run to a higher intesity (7-8mph) run for 10 minutes. I have yet to see either work however (diet diet diet, I know, I know). The walk isn't that bad, I've actually gotten to see some area right around me that I didn't know was there before. I've also moved from listening to music while walking to spoken word/comedy/audio books. The problem with the stand up comedy is that you have a tendancy to burst out laughing for no apparent reason, scaring off nearby people.

The lan party last saturday was great. It actually even got moving quite quickly thanks partly to Fred's router, which gave us nice internet access and a DHCP server. Lots of gaming, lots of gibbage, and thousands of megabytes of illegal and / or pirated software and music :)

I cancelled my contract with the company I was working with a couple of days ago. Their inability to get me things I needed (say, working source code, makefiles, or even a full distribution of the GPL library they were asking me to modify) made me decide <political> that it was in both our best interests to dissolve our contract</political>

Been working on some other stuff for other people with Fozbaca and Engel though, we'll see how that turns out. I also have an interview with a company in Vancouver on Friday. Sounds like they want to contract me out for my 31337 Linux skillz. They're a small company, privately owned, and the guy who answered my email was the main guy, but it sounds interesting. A bit of contract work doing setup or something would be cool, especially if I could work some security work in there as well.

Well, even though K says that dude from the gym was on crack as far as slower being better than faster, I went out the other day for a 40 minute fast walk or so. It felt good, but not painful, which is good. I'm going to go a few more times regardless, just to see (maybe tonight if I get back in time).

Today we're heading to JM's place for a long needed LAN party. I'm sure it'll be an orgy of file trading, passing around of copyright materials, and first person shooters. I have a stack of CDs containing many different things on them, but who knows who/what will come about.

I'll try to detail the events of the day tonight.

I'm still waiting for things from the people I'm supposed to be doing contract work for. They don't seem really interested in holding up their end of the deal (working source code and makefiles), and I'm about this (-> <-) far away from telling them to get a hold of me when they get their act together.

Another possibility has presented itself, this time with people that I have far more respect and trust (and history) with, but we'll have to see how that goes.

Seems that there's still some time before things'll start for leaving for the LAN, so breakfast is the order of business now :)

Oh yea, saw Spider-man yesturday, man, it was pretty good. I say go see it :)

Well, I decided to take a contract for a local company, doing some programming work that should keep me busy for a bit, and pay a bit, but nothing special. Of course, them getting me the correct files for me to actually start working would be even more helpful.

While I've been waiting however, I've gotten a lot of work on my resume done. At first I just made different versions, a C programmer version, a Perl programmer version, a general computer guy version, and so on. I started thinking that it'd be just awsome if there was a way I could abstract the information from the presentation. IE: Instead of having to create and maintain a "short" version and a "long" version of each one (one is point form the other has point form and long blathering paragraphs about stuff that no one will ever read), I could just have something that defined that when I wanted to create the short version, the extra information simply wouldn't be included. Not having to actually code the HTML and/or style that the resume looks like (a la CSS) would be nice too. While searching for a good XML editor, I found a very cool XML resume library that (potentially) does everything I want. I haven't gotten as far as using it on a completed resume yet, only as far as getting 90% through re-writing my resume in XML (which I now realize, is the coolest thing since sliced bread). I'll put some online when I'm done.

Gym morning too. Owie. I'm up to a run of 20 minutes at 6.8mph. I talked to Brent in the gym this morning (he's one of the weight room helper-dudes) and found out something interesting. Basically the last while of running out has been completely wasted if I wanted weight loss (which I do). Apparently the sort of running I'm doing is only really burning calories, which is fine, but for actual weight loss, you want to burn fatty acids (I think that's what they're called) (which I have plenty of :) To do this, you go slower, for longer. IE: 35-45 minutes at a moderately paced walk... "an easy day" he said. I've gone on the "fat burner" setting on the treadmill a few times, and felt nothing and noticed no difference, and gave up, figuring that feeling my body sweat and heart pound were doing more. Apparently though, I didn't go for long enough! He said he has a chart that shows that at the lower speed/heartrate, the burning of these fatty acids is something like 33% higher than at the higher speed. So work less, burn more I guess (cheesy as it sounds). So tomorrow I'll save my gym ticket and walk around the block, not run, and do that for a week or two and see how it works. If it's still a hopeless case, apparently Brent does 1 on 1 training for his "real" job, and depending on $, I may take him up on that.

Damn, cats are cute. I'm in the bathroom, and Zoon comes up, wanders around a bit, then jumps up on the sink. She looks up at the shelves beside the sink, stands on her hind legs, gives a short sharp "mew!" that I know to mean "ok, I wanna get up there!" then makes a big jump and gets to the second highest shelf. A few seconds later she's up on the top shelf (there's a gap at the back) and has herself almost stuck in the half empty 24 pack of toilet paper. She works herself loose, then lies down on some spare napkins, and looks very happy with herself.

Sometimes it scares me to think what they do while I'm not home....