Categories
Miscellaneous

Updates

Recipe Update

Anna-Maria and I are going to make a new recipe either tonight or on Sunday night. This one is Vegetable Curry. I think most of these recipes are vegetarian. Anyway this one will be the best one yet and I’ll post pictures if I remember to take some.

Roommate Update

I talked to my roommate about the food situation. (I.e. the situation where he’s been eating my food without my permission.) He said he was sorry and knew that he’d been eating a lot of it and said that it was because he lost his job but now he has a new job and would like to pay me back between $30 and $50 for the food he’s eaten. I had no idea how much food he’d eaten so I said whatever he thought would be fair and so he said he would pay me $40. I guess that seems pretty fair, but like I said I have no idea how much of my stuff he’s eaten. Hopefully he will now stop eating my food.

Mom’s Email

Apparently mom hasn’t been able to read her email for the last week or so because she lost her inbox. How do you lose your inbox? She says that she opens Eudora, it checks and downloads new mail, but then nothing. There is no inbox available to read new messages from. I think maybe she needs to change into a higher resolution to see if it’s just hidden somewhere off her screen. I’ll either have to get a copy of PC Anywhere or go home because as often as she has problems on her computer it would be easier for me to just look at her screen and fix it then to try to figure out what’s wrong by her description.

Cyborg

The New Media Department is helping fund a guest speaker tomorrow. The thing is, he’s not actually coming to the University (I think I may have already posted about this guy). Anyway he’s being Webcasted from his office / home? in Ontario. They are marketing him as the world’s first cyborg. I’ll post my review tomorrow.

University of Lethbridge Enrollment

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I signed up for another semester here at the University of Lethbridge. They are Drama 1000, Music and Computers, New Media 3520, 3420, and 3030. It looks like Anna-Maria has decided that she is moving to Toronto whether or not she is going to go to school there this fall. I’m pretty sad about this and while I have considered moving there, it just seems pretty overwhelming considering the house, and the money to move, and if my courses will transfer and if I can even find a place to go to University that will let me in with the Major that I have in mind. I hope she just decides to stay.

Motion Capture Equipment Lecture / Experience

I signed up for this one day Motion Capture class that is taking place tomorrow. From what I understand the University has the equipment necessary to track a person’s movements and place them on a computer generated person. Similar to, or perhaps even the exact same way they captured the movements for Gollum in The Lord of the Rings. Hopefully I’ll get some interesting material that I can post to the Blog.

Categories
Miscellaneous

Roommate Woes – Milk

If you ever get a 17-year-old roommate, who has never lived away from home before, please remember to tell him not to eat your food otherwise, if you are like me, you may wake up in the morning without any milk for breakfast.

Categories
Miscellaneous

French American Relations

Dave Barry has a solution for the tense relationship the American’s and the French are going through right now. From his article:

We simply cannot allow a close relationship like this to be destroyed because of some silly little dispute over who gets to run the world. That is why today I am calling upon you, my fellow Americans, to ”extend the olive jar” to our French brothers and sisters and yappy little dogs. I want you to deliberately approach French people wherever you can find them — on the street, on the Internet, in the ”Small World” ride at Disney World, in public restrooms — and make friendly overtures to them in their own language (French). To help you do this, here is a list of friendly French phrases:

”Bonjour, personne francaise!” (“Hello, French person!”)

”Je suis un Americain, et, dangue il, je vais vous donner une grande vieille etreinte!” (“I am an American and, dang it, I am going to give you a big old hug!”)

”Parole! Vous ne sentez pas demi aussi de mauvais que j’ai prevu!” (“Say! You do not smell half as bad as I expected!”)

”Qui s’inquiete qui court darned le monde?” (“Who cares who runs the darned world?”)

”Voulez-vous la gomme? Elle ketchup-est assaisonnee!” (“Do you want gum? It’s ketchup-flavored!”)

”Voulez que je vous porte au mail dans mon SUV?” (“Want me to take you to the mall in my SUV?”)

”Vous pouvez vous rendre au garde de securite!” (“You can surrender to the security guard!”)

”Ha ha, je suis badiner juste autour hors de l’amiti!” (“Ha ha, I am just kidding around out of friendship!”)

”Hey, revenez ici!” (“Hey, come back here!”)

”Il n’y a aucune cause pour l’alarme! Mon pistolet a une surete!” (“There is no cause for alarm! My gun has a safety!”)

Yes, fellow Americans, with a little effort, we can heal this rift between us and our old friends. Because, in the end, we have a lot more in common than we do separating us! Or, as the French would say, ”Je suis un grand gros menteur” (“I am a big fat liar”).

Categories
life

Happy April Fool’s Day!

I didn’t do any pranks this April 1st, but there’s always next year – not to mention the day is not over yet. If you’re curious read up on the Wikipedia’s entry about April Fool’s Day.

Important Fact About Yahoo News

When you read articles in the Yahoo Entertainment News & Gossip and gossip section about, say, the arrest of an insider trader from the future, it’s important to remember that the article may have originated in the Weekly World News. How was I supposed to know?

School

I signed up for another year at the U of L today. I’m taking 5 courses this fall which is a nice increase from the 4 I took this Spring. Maybe the fact that I am only in four classes is related to the fact that I my GPA is through the roof! Or maybe it’s because Art Teachers give easy grades. Easy? As if! I worked extremely hard for my grades, and I think it’s pretty obvious that I am one of the best in the class, even if I am only enrolled in four classes.

Categories
movie

Jeff Milner Movie Review – Punch Drunk Love

Anna-Maria and I went to see Paul Thomas Anderson’s new movie “Punch Drunk Love” last weekend. It is probably one of the most tense movies I care to remember seeing. Anna and I had white knuckles as we watched Adam Sandler perform as a socially backward individual just trying to fit in. While I really enjoyed this film, I don’t think it’s one for Mom and Dad. I don’t think you guys would like it — it’s not your typical Adam Sandler. Come to think of it, who knows because it seems to me that your tastes have often surprised me and maybe this is exactly your type of movie. Anyway it’s a little slow at first, but it does pick up and the story wraps itself up just about as perfectly as possible. I would highly recommend this movie to Gary because I know you like to see all the big movies anyway and I suspect this is one that you will like.

Categories
Miscellaneous

Time Traveler

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.”

Categories
Miscellaneous

Beene There Done That – TV is the Pitts

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.

Categories
Health life

Life Saving Society Competition

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 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, “Thousands 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.

Categories
computer life swimming

Linux Update and the Competitive Life Guarding Competition

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.

Categories
cooking

Pita Melt by Anna-Maria

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.