Ok, this link is what I like to call a “must read“. I expect to hear some feedback on this one as well.
“Federal investigators have arrested an enigmatic Wall Street wiz on insider-trading charges—and incredibly, he claims to be a time-traveler from the year 2256!” He started out with only $800, and in two weeks he had created a portfolio worth more than $350 million.
I kind of wish that this guy was for real, even though it’s obvious that he’s a lunatic or a really incredible liar. What I find the most interesting part of this article is that, “the Security and Exchange Commision source admits, “No one can find any record of any Andrew Carlssin existing anywhere before December 2002.”
Has anybody noticed that Fox’s new show, Oliver Beene, seems to be a rip-off of the Wonder Years? Everything about the show screams, “I wish I was Kevin Arnold!” The TV show not only copies The Wonder Years premise by following Oliver growing through his adolescent years in the 60’s but it also copies every other character in the show. You may think this comparison is pretty weak, but consider the following. The teacher drones on like Ben Stein, Oliver has friends that seem just like Winnie and Paul. Not even the trademark Wonder Year scenes of showing black & white newscasts in the background are cut from this cheap copy. Even the narrator’s voice sounds like it came straight out of The Wonder Years. They could have at least based the show in the early 80’s giving us Gen-X’s something to relate to. Who do they think their target audience is anyway?
Continuing with my rant about lame new TV shows, comes my take on The Pitts — it’s Fox’s other new show. I guess I never gave it much of a chance, but from what I did see (about the first 15 minutes) the show gets two enthusiastic thumbs down. The premise of this show is that a supposedly normal girl (who can’t act) lives with a family of psychotics that have very bad luck ? think Malcolm in the Middle but less funny. I didn’t watch the ending, so I don’t know if they are keeping all of the characters but in this particular episode they hired a nanny who has been obsessed with the Father ever since he stood her up on prom night 25 years ago. Why couldn’t he remember her when he hired her? Lame, lame, lame!
Where did all the good shows go? I’ll take the Internet over TV any day. Although, I must admit, I do like the occasional cartoon.
I finished up at the pool this morning as Equipment Manager. We finished early yesterday and today and it looked like it would have been a fun meet to compete in. I had the chance to try out some scuba gear after the events yesterday and again this morning.
Amy, one of the lifeguards at the Max bell and my WSI instructor, mentioned to me that I was on the “A”-list for call-backs to be a lifeguard there. I’m pretty excited to finally be getting a job here in Lethbridge. It will make paying the mortgage a lot easier.
Newsflash - Quarantine
The Calgary Sun reports that because of SARS, “[t]housands of people, many of them health workers, are under quarantine in Winnipeg and across Ontario”. Personally I think this SARS thing is slightly more dangerous than the West Nile scare last November, but I still think it will be one of those things we hear about but never have any personal experience with. Although I think Mom said one of the students at her school contracted it. Maybe she’ll leave a comment explaining the situation.
Ahhh, there is nothing quite as relaxing as sitting down to the quiet hum of your computer in your own home, drinking a nice refreshing Pepsi and posting to your blog. I have lots of things to post tonight so without further ado…
Today I emailed a guy from the Linux club here in Lethbridge and asked him for a copy of Linux on CD. Not only did he respond promptly he actually volunteered and delivered the CD to my house. I still haven’t installed it, but I’m planning on setting up a Linux server on that other computer one of these days.
As I may or may not have mentioned, I volunteered to help out at the competitive life guarding competition that is happening tomorrow at the Max Bell (the University Pool). I am pretty happy that I did because I got a free Level 2 training tonight and although it did take 4 hours from my life… I am now a certified level two official which if nothing else is a nice addition to my resume.
The actual event sounds like it will be very fun to watch; of course more fun to be in, but what can you do? Some of the things they must do are: race across the pool and drag a manikin back in the fastest time keeping “the head” above water, swimming through an obstacle course, and doing it all in relays among other things. As it stands right now, my job as a volunteer will be to make sure that all of the equipment is in place and ready to go at the start of each race. I have 3 or 4 assistants helping me out and I think it will be a great experience. I’ll let you know how it goes.
When I was in Medicine Hat the other day, I bought a Maxtor 1394 PCI Adapter Card for my computer which will allow me to link up firewire devices, specifically digital video cameras, and then I’ll be able to do my homework here at home. I guess it was a little late considering the school year is almost over, but I figured it would be good to have for next year and in case I get my own digital video camera or other firewire device. I haven’t installed it yet, but as soon as I have an afternoon with nothing to do I’ll get right on it.
It’s amazing how fast a 710 mL bottle of Pepsi goes. Til next time keep the comments coming, I love them.
Anna-Maria made the second recipe from her Poppy yesterday night. I have the picture of how it turned out and I’d have to say—it was just as good or better than the first recipe. I can’t wait til we make the next one.
What you see in the picture is a pita, covered in smashed avocado, cheese, tomato, fresh garlic, and more cheese. You can find the recipe for the Avocado melt in the section on the right (Just click to expand the menu). Anna-Maria and I decided only to add the recipes after we try them, so there will be more added in the coming weeks. By the way, if you just make the Avocado part, it makes a great dipping sauce along with sour cream and salsa.
I just want to say how angry I am at one2host.com. My site is down AGAIN!!!! What a waste of money—I wish I could get my money back! The site is down, the email server is down, even when I try to contact them via their website I can’t get through. If I had the site running on an old computer with just a linux server and my DSL connection it would be better than the crappy service that One2host has given me. I hate those guys.
Update: milnerdesign.com is long gone, but my new site jeffmilner.com is hosted by the wonderful folks at infinology and I have to say the service here has been excellent.
Anna-Maria was emailed a bunch of recipes from her “Poppy” back East. She tried one last night that was quite good. We’ll post each recipe as we try them along with suggestions. I figure it was a meal that Mom and Dad would just love. (Beans and Corn and stuff all mixed together). Just wait for the recipe.
In my mortgage agreement with the bank I pay back my property taxes with each payment I make. I, therefore, will not have to pay a huge $1600.00 tax once a year. But thanks for looking out for me.
I know this isn’t really newsworthy, but I am so pleased with myself that I want to post that I finally fixed the leaky faucet that has been driving me nuts for months! It only cost me like $5.00 at Canadian tire to get the part I needed. I also bought a handsaw for installing a new outlet for the dryer and some needle nose pliers (it was an impulse buy but at $2.99 how could I resist?)
Wired Magazine is covering an interesting story about company that is refusing to sell it’s products to anyone living in Canada, France, Germany, or any other country opposed to the war in Iraq. Apparently the company had a laser printer on sale on EBay and when they found out that the highest bidder was from Vancouver, BC they changed their mind about the sale.
The Simpson family will be around for at least another couple of years making it the longest running comedy of all time. Simpsons creator Matt Groening also confirmed that a movie is in the works. “We’re talking about doing it. We just want to make sure, if we do, it doesn’t follow in the dismal footsteps of other currently-running TV shows turned into movies.” Of course it looks like the new Simpsons movie won’t be made for a long time, and maybe not even until after the show stops producing new episodes.
Yesterday I received a letter in the mail from The Alberta Heritage Fund. It was a cheque for $900 for the Jimmy Condon Scholorship. Taking part on the swim team was such a great decision! Not only have I had a great time, it hasn’t really cost me a lot monetarily speaking! I’m really glad to get the money, but I do still need to get a real job. Living from bursary to scholarship to GST cheques won’t last me forever.
I have been thinking about having a new roommate. I know I don’t like having people around much - it’s nice to have the house to myself, but this would make paying the bills a whole lot easier. I’ll find out soon if he’s really interested.
I was thinking that in the remote case that Dad ever decides he would like to post a link to a website that he has found, he probably doesn’t have the slightest idea how. So here are some simple instructions. It is probably easiest to copy the link into the clipboard. This is done by highlighting the address in the address bar, right clicking and clicking copy. Then type out the following example but paste in your address instead of the http://www.cnn.com. (right click then click paste).
This is a link to <a href=”http://www.cnn.com“>type link word(s) here</a>.
Any of the red letters can be changed but in order for the link to work, all the black text must be typed exactly and the link must be exact as well. The previous paragraph, with no colors added comes out looking like:
This is a link to type link word(s) here.
I hope this helps.
I just finished the animation project that is due tomorrow. Actually I still have to export it to .mov format and add sound but here it is without sound. (You’ll need an up to date flash player.)
Here’s some more food for thought about dumbness. Bill Clinton, just as all Presidents do, made his share of mistakes. Most notably the affair with office intern Monica Lewinsky. The media had a feeding frenzy. Clinton was dragged through the mud, and yet when it was all over everyone still seemed to love Clinton. Bush on the other hand has also made his mistakes in office. Even though he cheated the election and started a war with Iraq in which hundreds of people will die, you don’t hear any mainstream media criticising his actions. According to the media Bush’s ratings are high, but frankly I don’t think that will be the case come election time. Now I dare to ask the question, who made the bigger mistake, Bush or Clinton? Whose mistakes cost more lives?
Because our Calgary trip has been cancelled, Anna-Maria and I took a trip into Medicine Hat instead. We will be heading home to Lethbridge later today. I had the chance to talk to Dad about some current events and I can’t believe his take on “the events of” the last few weeks. (If you don’t like it get a new blog!). He feels that Canada has “gone to far” by not sending Iraqi diplomats home when the United States has put out a press release asking other countries to do so. For what good reason should Canada send them home? There is no reason. The US has no right to ask the world to send them home. Here are some excepts from a related article:
The spokesman displayed little sympathy for the Iraqi diplomats who might be expelled, saying he did not know where they should go but it was possible to return to Iraq by land. “We just think they need to be kicked out of the countries that they’re in,” Boucher said. Asked where they should go, he replied: “I guess, to put it bluntly, that’s their problem.”
The article also stated that Canada hasn’t been specifically asked:
A spokesman for Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien told Reuters in Ottawa: “They (the Americans) have not asked us and we see no reason to change Iraq’s diplomatic status in Canada.” Iraq’s embassy in Ottawa has one Iraqi diplomat. Russia also refused the US request to expel Iraqi diplomats from Moscow, dismissing it as “unacceptable”.
In a war that seems more and more like it’s being run by an ambitious dictator, I can only hope it is over soon.