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.

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.

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.

Milnerdesign.com

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.

Recipes

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.

Property Taxes and The Leaky Faucet

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?)

Some American Companies are just plain stoopid

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 Simpsons Movie

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.

Jimmy Condon and New Roommate

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.

How to Post a link Online

I was thinking that in the remote case that my 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.