You and me will all go down in history with a sad statue of liberty and a generation that didn't agree...

Hello. How are you today? I'm good. Here's a summary of the weekend and some random stuff.

- Friday night was quite enjoyable as we were bowling at the Glencoe Club with Stephanie's company. I was dressed to impress as Kevin Federline. My costume was so wonderful I was stopped at the entrance by the desk clerk, wanting to know if he "could help" me. And you know what it means when someone says "Uh, excuse me, but can I help you?" in that way that says "Hi. You're not supposed to be here." It was great.

- Saturday was also fun as Poker Club had our first halloween poker tournament. It was great fun and good poker was played by all. It went on for quite a long time, around 7 hours. Yikes!

- I feel quite badly that Chip and Michele did not realize that it was a tournament and that they couldn't cash out once they left. That was unfortunate.

- Sunday was a bit hectic; we cleaned the house like mad because my parents were coming over. Once they were over they surveyed the basement, then we watched the Stampeders game (damn that team is looking good right now). After they left we went down to Treasures of China for dinner with Steph's Uncle. I got to see my second cousin-in-law Hayley. (Hailey? I can't remember). She's adorable and she loves me. Every time I see her now she reaches up for a great big hug from Uncle Kyle.

- I have a new keyboard now with lots of fun shortcut buttons. I can now open frequently used programs and such with a press of a button. I am a geek. Huzzah for me.

- I can't believe Vinatieri missed that damn chip-shot of a field goal yesterday. That miss cost me a win in my fantasy football league. Instead I had to settle for a tie. Grrr. It would have been a huge win since it was against the #1 team in the league right now. Bah.


A crow and a driftwood "temple", Kluane Lake, Yukon Territory

Halloween fun

Well, this weekend should be interesting. We've got lots of running around to do, but also, we will be attending Stephanie's company Halloween party tonight. Bowling at the Glencoe Club while dressed up in my sucky halloween costume (really, it seemed like a good idea for Stephanie & I to dress up as pregnant-Britney Spears and Kevin Federline, but considering how all we ever do is procrastinate, the costumes are going to be teh suck).

Tomorrow is the big Halloween Poker Tournament, which will be all sorts of great fun. I will post pictures.

And so, since I'm hideously uninspired today, that is all.

Here is a picture of a monkey.


A cheeky monkey, if you believe the filename.

Pencils, pencils, pencils.

Ok so I got poked by pencils yesterday on the way home because I didn't write in this blog.

Bad Kyle. Bad!

I thought that 2 entries the day before would get me out of it, but alas, my assumption was wrong. And it made an ass out of ... um, well, just me, I guess.

Anyway, moving on ...

Way to go Sox! I'm personally not particularly surpsied by the outcome of the World Series this year, I had pretty much called it from the outset that the Sox would pull it off, and once the final series opponent turned out to be the Astros, I picked the
Sox in 5. So, almost got it exactly right ... yeeehoo.

Oh, and the reason the Sox won? No, it wasn't the pitching. No, it wasn't the fact that they played really good ball (which they did, they played excellent ball, small-ball when needed, but could bust out a big inning if needed... it was a joy to watch), and no, it wasn't Ozzie Guillen's managing (which was also spectacular all season long, not just in the playoffs).

The reason the Sox won is that they were a team in every sense of the word.

--

My new keyboard for my laptop arrived today, so I'm now able to type without the keys sticking. Over the last 2 days though, I've had an external USB keyboard plugged into the laptop, which has been nice. Unfortunately, it's Steph's keyboard so I have to give it back now that my laptop is fixed. BUT... I think I might buy an external keyboard to use here in the office.

And so, that's about it for today. Oh I lead such an exciting life.


Yay! We won!

Well done, George.

2,000th soldier killed in Iraq

Just press this big red button that says 'Launch Missile'

So what's going on ... hmm. Well, not too much, really.

My back is killing me, for some strange reason which I cannot fathom. Perhaps I have been sitting too long. Well, there's a pretty good chance that's it since I've been planted in this chair since 7:15am...

Anyway, had quite the panic last night. We got home around 5:00 or so, and yesterday was the last day the drywall guys were going to be in the house. Now, we had been a bit worried about the cats since these weren't the regular contractors who are fully aware we have cats and whatnot.

So once we had been home for a couple of hours, we realized we had not seen Salinger since we got home. So we searched the house high and low to no avail. I searched the garage to no avail, calling his name. Silence.

We then searched outside, calling his name, all to no avail (this also resulted in the rather odd situation of me wandering around the grounds of our condo with a flashlight, looking in people's basement lightwells, under trees, under cars, etc. The odd thing about this was I was doing this in plain view of several of the people in our development, and nobody said a thing ... good thing I wasn't a criminal, eh?).

So we called the SPCA to report him lost, raced down to the office to print some "LOST CAT" posters (since we have no printer right now at home), then raced back home and into the garage.

On a lark, Stephanie decided to look into the cabinets which are in the garage. I had
never looked in them, simply because I figured there was far too much crap in front of them for him to paw the cabinet open and get in, plus if he WAS in the garage, he would have been too scared to think about hiding in the cabinet.

Anyway, after hours of searching, printing off flyers and whatnot, Stephanie peers into the cabinet to find poor Salinger, covered in dirt, looking up as if to say "Oh, hi, you're looking for me?"

Crisis averted. Nice of him to stay quiet while I called his name though... damn cat.


(Yeah, Steph posted this in her blog too, but I think it's easily the most appropriate picture I've got for this post.

My son is a cold-hearted gangster, and I need a hug.

Well, let's hope that doesn't actually come true.

Pretty uneventful weekend, really. Put up with the contstant BANGBANGBANGBANG of guys installing drywall in the basement, took Cooper to the Vet because he's got something wrong with his right eye. Yuck.

Watched a couple of movies. From now on, whenever I watch a movie, I will rate it. This weekend, I watched two films which were not treated very well by the critics, "Suspect Zero" and "Saw"

Suspect Zero
My rating: 2 out of 5

Well, this was a strange film, I have to say. I remember seing the previews for it and thinking "wow that sounds interesting", then when the reviews came out deciding it was a renter at best.

That's true for the first half of the movie. The first half of the film was far too slow, badly acted and confusing. It was evident that the director was trying to be "edgy" with all sorts of weird camera angles and weird cuts and stuff. Really, overall it fell completely flat.

The second half, however, was excellent. Once Ben Kingsley actually got to act instead of sit in a chair and have seizures, the film became quite interesting. It's a testament to the talent of that actor that he could save the film. It's really as if halfway through the film, the stuidio came in, sid "Nope, crappy." Then went and got a new writer, director, producer, etc., for the second half.

All in all, this film was quite disappointing because it was promising. The plot could have been very interesting.

Saw
My rating: 4 out of 5

Yep, 4 out of 5, I thought this movie was excellent. Ok, let's get the obvious out of the way: the acting is terrible. But it's a horror movie, so really what do you expect? I don't watch horror flicks to see good acting.

Some other "negatives" - I find it hard to watch Carey Elwes in anything but The Princess Bride. Especially in a movie that involves him talking about poison, since I fully expect him to start talking about how he's built up an immunity to the poison, or suddenly exclaim that he's not left handed, etc. Also, it's sad to see Danny Glover reduced to movies like this.

Ok, that's out of the way. Now onto the positives. Deliciously twisted, well produced (with lots of unique angles and cuts and whatnot, thinking about it now, it's really what Suspect Zero I think wanted to do), and a very interesting plot that kept me interested. Also, anytime a film can have a twist at the end that actually surprises me is a definite plus (for those of you who have seen it, the twist at the very, very, very, very end with the body).

All in all, if you like twisted/horror movies, this is a definite must.


Deer in the backyard at the cabin
Picture by me

The penguins are in the toilets.

Kyle wants to play Mr. T if we do a skit
The new gym is now simply called The Gym, and Kyle wants to know how it is.
Kyle wants to have a 3-5 year end goal, with steps developed to reach that goal
Kyle wants to know if you ever bring puppies up into space?
Kyle wants phone sex, anal, and other gross stuff.
Kyle wants to do 19 things.
Kyle wants to know his first name.
Kyle wants to show his Dad how his raging hormones have changed his body.

Ok, that's enough of that sillyness.

I sure hope the Arizona Cardinals start Josh McCown this week, otherwise I'm terribly screwed in my Fantasy Football League.


here comes another one...

(Sorry for the crappy blog today folks. I'm running out of time today before I have to leave for a doctor's appointment...)

Fancy coming back to my place and doing the things I'll tell everyone we did anyway?

Yeah, I don't know what it means either. But the title is from SmartPhrase.com's "Random Phrase Generator". Hell, it beats trying to think up a title.

So, over the last year or so (maybe longer), my laptop Hard Drive has died three times. Thankfully I've never lost any data, but it's been a pain to boot up my PC those times that it has happened, find that the HD has gone berzerk, (berserk?) and then spend an entire day restoring the data from the HD, rebuilding the laptop, etc.

Anyway, as my warranty is getting towards the end, and I consistently lose sectors on the HD whenever it fails like that (the 30GB HD is now just a 27GB one... hooray), I figure I will call Dell and arrange for a replacement HD.

And so began my journey into Helpdesk hell. Made all the worse by the fact that I run a freaking helpdesk and know what makes a good one, what makes a bad one, and I know that once you're caught in the jaws of a bad helpdesk, there is no escape.

Dell: "Thank you for calling Dell. Please enter your express service tag number."

Me: BEEP-BOOP-BEEP-BAAP-BOOP (etc.)

Dell: "We are now connecting you ..."

Me: (Five minutes of holding... not bad...)

Dell: "Thank you for calling Dell. My name is Anjia. Are you Kyle?"

Me: Yes. (Impressed thus far, she obviously has my account on the screen)

Anjia: "Thank you. Is this call about your Inspiron 5100?"

Me: "Yes it is"

Anjia: "What seems to be the problem?"

Me: "Over the last several months my HD has failed, and I have lost all my data and had to rebuild the machine. I have a lot of bad sectors on the HD and would like to know how I can go about getting a replacement."

Anjia: "Ok sir so you think the problem with your machine is with the ... HARD DRIVE."

Me: "Uh, yes..."

Anjia: "Ok are you able to turn the computer on?"

Me: "Yes, and sorry just so we're clear, the problem right now is that the HD has lots of bad sectors and has failed 3 times in 12 months."

Anjia: "Please turn on your pc"

Me: "It's already on"

Anjia: "Ok sir, good. What is the error message on your screen."

Me: "There is no error. The hard drive is working right now but has bad sectors."

Anjia: (and at this point now, I know, she's scrambling through her script which she is not allowed to deviate from) "So you have lost all your data?"

Me: "Three times in the past, yes, but not right now."

Anjia: "Are you able to boot in safe mode?"

Me: "That has nothing to do with the hard drive."

Anjia: (after a long period of silence... she decides to go back to the beginning of her script!!!) "Are you able to turn on the PC..."

At this point I crawled through the phone line and killed her.

Today's random picture...


photo by me

A challenge from the wifey...

So the wife has challenged me to blog everyday. She will blog everyday, as will I. If we forget, we get to poke each other with sharp pencils on the drive home.

This will work well until she is at home with the baby, and there will be no "drive home together." I suppose I will have to poke myself with sharp pencils if I forgot to blog, and poke whomever has the misfortune to sit next to me on the bus if she forgot.

Hm. That could be fun, actually.

So, here's some randomness:

1. I'm quite glad that the Amazing Race is finally going to get out of the USA next episode. I am thankful for this as it appeared that the season was going to be pulled into an inescapable vortex of suckage if it continued on the same path. This season has been horribly disappointing. I mean, think about it. They've gone from exciting excursions to giant waterfalls in Iceland to ... finding a ... guy named... Les? At a gas station? WHAT?!?! Come on.

2. It's nice to know that the Great Lakes have migrated south to Louisiana.

3. It's also nice to know that the world's longest bridge is now suddenly, somehow, in the USA, where it never used to be.

4. Through the course of having our basement renovated, we have found that our original builder made the following mistakes/errors/omissions during the original build:

- No venting for the roughed-in bathroom was completed, meaning that our contractor had to drill through the outside of the condo to get the venting in place. Interestingly enough, we're still waiting for approval from the board to do this, even though we already went ahead and did it. Let's hope they say yes to the modification.

- The pipe for the toilet that was part of the roughed-in bathroom was put in crooked. Meaning that without some time-consuming modifications, our toilet would have been sitting at an angle. Whee!

- The pipe for the drain for the tub that was part of the roughed-in bathroom was put in nearly horizontally, and facing the wrong way.

- The smoke detectors - BOTH upstairs and downstairs - were hooked up to a light switch in the basement. This means that for over 2 years, whenever the basement lights are turned off (which has been pretty much ALL THE TIME), neither smoke detector in the house was functional. I now need to inform the board of this problem as it's possible that other smoke detectors were wired this way too.

- It is apparent that our condo was constructed by monkeys, with low IQs.

5. Having an office is nice. I'm much more productive now.

Ok, that's it for now.

Today's random picture is titled "Mmmm, melon."

(I'm going to end each post with a picture. I figure that should keep people coming to read, even if they just scroll past the verbose crap I type and look at the picture)

Go get 'em!

Some randomness and 20 pictures

Ok, so, some random stuff, and 20 pictures from San Fransisco

- I am a bad blogger. Over the last couple of months this blog has deteriorated into random postings containing little more than pictures I've found. Mostly in other people's blogs. Sigh. I am sorry, blog. I am so very bad

- Almost every day I say "I should write in my blog on my lunchbreak" and then I either play a poker tournament at pokerstars.net or I get abducted by my coworkers who have no respect for the fact that I'm on lunch. Yes, I may be at my desk, BUT I'M EATING AND PLAYING POKER HOW MUCH MORE DO YOU NEED TO SEE TO REALIZE I'M NOT WORKING RIGHT NOW

- I should go for walks on my lunchbreak instead of sitting at my desk

- Jenny Good is to Matthew Good as Yoko Ono was to The Beatles

- We ventured to Costco today. Spent $75 which I think is quite the accomplishment at Costco, since usually you go in there and end up spending eleventy billion dollars. Anyway, the interesting thing about this trip was that, typically when I'm in Costco on a Saturday, it takes me eleventeen seconds to want to start killing people. Not everyone, just the ones who leave their cart in the middle of the aisle and wander away from it, or walk... really... r e a l l y s l o w in the middle of an aisle, or a family that walks side-by-side-by-side-by-side-by-side instead of taking up a little less room... or that group of people who just SUDDENLYSTOPWITHOUTANYWARNING causing you to crash into them.

Anyway, today, I was in some weird sort of zen-state or whatever you would call it, and instead of being annoyed, I found it incredibly funny. People wandering around aimlessly, almost as though they were lost, oblivious to any other person around them, unaware that they were in the way... bizarre. Someone should do a study of the way people behave in a crowded store.

- Ok, I lied. I wanted to kill one person - the lady who, while I was moving to the side of an aisle to get something, crashed her cart PAST mine. Not accidentally bumped into my card, but crashed my cart out of the way.

- San Fransisco was wonderful, wonderful, wonderful. Here's 20 pictures, and some captions. I toned the quality down so they load faster.



Golden Gate Bridge as shot from China Beach


Streetcar at night


Ships in the harbor near Fisherman's Wharf


Alcatraz as seen from the boat on the way back to shore


I loved the way the light came in through the windows. This is in the lunch hall of Alcatraz


Cellblocks. Black-and-whited for effect.


A cell at Alcatraz.


At Fisherman's Wharf there is this little "arcade" that has all these old time arcade games. This was my favourite, it was kind of like Pinball & Baseball in one. The "pithcer" would throw a steel ball and you had to use the paddle to hit it past the "fielders" into the wall behind them.


Another streetcar, taken at night.


Mmm. Pumpkin. This was taken near Half Moon Bay at their annual pumpkin festival. There were literally hundreds of people buying pumpkins.


Wedding fun! This is Phillipe. He's from France. And quite talented with a spoon. Hell of a fun and interesting fellow.


This is us before the wedding, outside the hotel.


Ah. Children and their impeccable timing. This was the couple's first dance, which was obviously not nearly as important as what this little guy wanted. Whatever that may have been. Of all the pictures taken on our trip, this is my absolute favourite.


Aaaallllooooooouuuuuuu. (Shot taken from our seats at full 300mm zoom)


SBC Park, as seen from our $30 seats.


Near Pear 39 at Fisherman's Wharf are the "World Famous Sea Lions". They were amazingly loud. Here, you can see 3 of them barking for no discernable reason.


This shot was taken at the MOMA (Museum of Modern Art) which is this amazing structure built for the world's fair in the early 1900's.


Another view of the MOMA.


San Fransisco fog and the Golden Gate Bridge.


SBC Park at night, taken across from McCovey Cove, the home of many a home run.

- Ok, that's it for now. I'm sleepy. Ciao. Here's hoping that the bloggage becomes a bit more regular for me ...

Golden Gate Preview...

Here's a teaser shot from our trip to San Fran. Full bloggage coming soon.