MSN Status Away = Not Really Away

Admit it, most of the time when you're on your computer and have MSN Messenger open you probably have it set on away. That's not so bad, hell I even do it myself when I actually use the thing (I can't believe people still use the thing). But let me tell you that it's so stupid when you have it set on away and you have some message to remind people that you're just too busy to be online but you'll leave it on anyway just in case your fans decide to ask you how awesome whatever you were doing just happened to be. Some examples are: Going to get more drunk at the concert then at the after party thurs! It's going to be best time ever! or Party was siiiiiick! of OMG I can't believe those pictures of me from the party made it on clubzone. Don't look! www.clubzone.com

No one is keeping tabs on you want no one cares. Trust me.

You're not going to get flooded with 329103 messages if you switch to online anyway. I would rather see a link to a funny catchphrase, video, cell number or better yet just turn your MSN off while you go and have the best time ever out of everybody. It's just better that way.

And if you're invisible don't start up a conversation with me and expect me to carry it for you. I don't want to have to scroll down an unsorted list in Adium just to find your name so I can send you lol. I thought the whole point of being invisible was so that you could spy on people and not actually interact with them. I know if you go online on a Friday night you'll get ostracized, so you'd better stay invisible while messaging the other uncool people who are online and try to force a conversation on them instead.

It was the same thing with ICQ and their invisible mode and the ability to add some of your friends to see you when you were invisible in case they wanted to chat with you while you secretly. It was somehow a privilege.

Maybe I'm just anti-social I hate everyone equally. Rant rant rant...is it the long weekend yet?

Learning to drift...I mean drive stick

Kids,

One of the things about living and working in the suburbs is that unless you want to spend hours a day riding the bus, you'll need a car. You'll also learn that cars are one of the worst investments you can ever make. The only thing that might be worse than buying a car may be leasing one. Of course, this only applies to people who aren't baller, and with that in mind I am purchasing a new car.

After spending the weekend car shopping here's the lineup of autos that made it to the final round. FYI there is no such thing as no sunroof in my books.

MODEL	HORSEPOWER	FUEL ECONOMY	KM/TANK CITY	PRICE
Civic LXSR	140 @ 6300	7.4/5.4	676 (50L)	$20,780
Matrix Touring	132 @ 6000	7.8/6.2	641 (50L)	$20,920
Corolla S	132 @ 6000	7.5/5.6	667 (50L)	$21,200
Golf 3-door Sportline	177 @ 5700	10.4/7	528 (55L)	$23,900

By far the VW was easily the best car I've driven - you pay a more for the quality and performance but like the rapist Slap Chop guy says, German Engineering really is German Engineering. That car definitely falls under the baller category...but after a another trip to a VW dealership, I've confirmed that I do not fall under this category.

Lets put it this way: I am a cheapskate pretty frugal guy that is saving for a house (and at this rate it's going to be a bachelor pad).

Don't get me wrong, I went in there to finance the thing but after getting only $700 below sticker and a real douche for a salesperson, I didn't want to buy anything let alone a car from the guy and left the place with a bitter taste in my mouth. He tried every sleazy trick in the book and annoyed the shit out of me with his arrogance - imagine the guy asked me if I could afford a $90 oil change. Now that I've had some time to reconsider the whole thing, as much as I wanted to buy a VW after a real hard look I've decided it was not meant to be. It feels like the whole thing was a sign from the gods telling me that Asians gotta stick together.

Don't get me wrong, I could have financed the shit out of that 36 month 0% but I've come to terms that the higher cost of maintenance, parts and especially gas is somehow uncharacteristically not me. To put it in my perspective, what I see is that Toyota/Honda offer $1000+ off the MSRP, get well over 100+ km more per tank, cost less to maintain and fix. The quality of VW is unquestionable but you definitely pay for it in the long run.

This is the perspective of a guy who uses Quicken to manage his finances and has categories and budgets for things like Firearms/Ammo, Toys/eBay misc., and Annual Ski Trip. While I own some pretty fine rifles and camera gear I don't think I'll be owning a fine automobile any time soon...it's too bad really.

Anyway, that's the kind of shit that keeps me up at night. Ken Rockwell wrote an article that I love to read every now and again: How to afford anything, and it mentions one of the mottos that I like to live by: A poor man pays twice. Give it a glance some of it really makes sense.

I won't be racing anyone any time soon...

No diving allowed...only bungee jumping and climbing some huge ladder.

I really haven't had a chance to take many pictures lately, but I've been randomly checking out my archives and came across these. They're from the time I went bungee jumping and it reminded me just how shallow the water actually was, heh. I took them while riding a super sketchy 2 person gondola up the cliff side, and actually that was just as nerve racking as well.

Those random rope ladders are another weird adrenaline activity which was on a platform a little further down the river from the bungee one. It was basically climbing up or down a huge ass rope ladder while wearing a safety harness. I really didn't see anyone do it though but I could see someone chickening out on that way easier than on the bungee jump. Do not want.

Summer is almost here, time for some new adventures.

Lobster sashimi what?

So I seem to misinterpret a lot of things (like constantly) because of my general lack of knowledge probably because I can get over excited about pretty much anything. This tends to lead to my imagination running off in the wrong direction and then I just get confused when things don't turn out the way I expected...

For example I went to this place called Tako Sushi the other night and when I first heard the name I naturally assumed that it was Mexican/Japanese fusion. When we got there I saw the sign was actually Tako instead of Taco and was kind of disappointed, but it actually made more sense since we were supposed to go there for teppanyaki.

It started to get confusing when we got inside and instead of Japanese people there were Taiwanese people speaking Mandarin. On top of that I was even more confused because apparently I been associating teppenyaki with the wrong thing for a while now. According to Wikipedia:

Teppanyaki (鉄板焼き, teppan'yaki?) is a style of Japanese cuisine that uses an iron griddle to cook food. The word teppanyaki is derived from teppan (鉄板), which means iron plate, and yaki (焼き), which means grilled, broiled or pan-fried.

They don't mention the tricks and fire but yeah there's some of that as well. I've seen it before, ate it before and even had conversations before but for whatever reason the terminology just went over my head or something. I'm going to blame the whole confusion on me never really paying attention to you restaurants naming their restaurants inappropriately. I don't know what Tako means, but couldn't it have been called something like Tako Teppanyaki to better reflect the name? One of the other places I've been to was called Tokyo Teppenyaki and that had nothing to do with iron griddles and was actually a sushi buffet. And what about Teriyaki Experience, but isn't the preparation method more important than the sauce in that case. What up with that?

Anyway, to tie this story into the title we decided to eat some lobster just like everyone else would on a Friday night (right?) and when they asked us how we would like the lobster prepared - the guy was like teriyaki or sashimi? That was a first. While it's not uncommon to eat fresh raw seafood I've never really put lobster into that group. I've heard of fish, horse and chicken sashimi but never that.

Anyway, I took the teriyaki option because I was scared to get the runs I was taken by such intense surprise but I think I'd actually try it the next time when I'm guaranteed the freshness....maybe.

Ski trip video! Hosers Go To Vermont - Part 2: Always wear a ski helmet!

Finally! Ski trip videos! Hosers Go To Vermont - Part 1: Ski slopes and poop pants...

I dunno, I guess I've started to get video editor's block or something. I know it's been a long time coming, but when I got to the 6 minute mark of this ski video I've been trying to make for the past 2 months, I got stuck and decided to release it in pieces instead.

I guess it will be a short trilogy that's hopefully easier to watch than the last. Here's the first part: There's swearing, falling, pants that got shat in and of course some poor skiing.

Damn the Tax Man!!

This time of year, aka tax time, has always been a wonderful time of year. Since my income is no where near baller status I have always been happy to accept a nice bonus from the government, especially while in university when my tax refund kept me afloat for the rest of the semester.

As I collected all my papers and such to get ready for a phone date to do taxes my dad (yep, I'm 26 and my dad still does my taxes) I just imagined how big my refund would be. Let me tell you I was most upset to find out I OWE the goverment money. I wondered how it's possible that I owe taxes when I didn't have an income for a good 4 months of the year? (Side note, next time I move across the country, have a job lined up).

Here's how they screw you/I screwed myself and didn't know it. It turns out that having multiple jobs, even if they are short term/part time, isn't the best idea. Two of my jobs didn't deduct any taxes and then when all of my incomes were added together it bumped me into a higher income bracket. Add in the un-taxed income and I'm getting set to write the feds a cheque. I probably should have paid more attention to the tax forms I signed when I started each of these jobs.

So the part time job that I've had since September could have actually done more harm then good. The irony is that I had the second job to earn extra pocket money but in reality, half of what I made while working job #2 is going back to the government. Awesome.

I quit job #2 last week so maybe next year will be like the good ol' days with an April bonus...or this could be the start of a lifetime of paying taxes.

South Korea's got Seoul...yeah I know

Still being a fairly new employee, it seems I have a big hill to climb on my way to Vacationville...oh well. Who knows where I'll go when I finally have enough days.

A guy can day dream can't he?

You learn something new every day...like how to take a screenshot with your iPod/iPhone

So back in the day when I first got my iPod there was no such thing as a screenshot or the app store. Jailbreaking and installing somewhat illegitimate apps apps was all the rage and we actually used the thing to listen to music. Fast forward a few years later and the story's different.

Although Apple wanted us chumps to pay for firmware 3.0 just so we could get the App Store and spend more money, there were other ways to upgrade. While over the years I've probably had every version of firmware since the original, I never knew about how to take screenshots until today.

The trick? Just press the home + lock button at the same time. I'm not exactly sure if that's what they're called but there's only 2 buttons on the thing, so unless things go horribly (wait for it) wrong, you should be able to handle it.

There. You learn something every day. Now you won't think I'm lying when I tell you my paper toss scores.

It's never casual Friday.

Friday linkage, because it's about all I can handle...

• Children's drawings painted realistically
• Batman stabbing a shark with a lightsaber...Win!
• Darth Vader rides a cat into battle
• No two farts are exactly alike
• You know you love eating unborn chickens...so cute!
• The Shrine Down the Hall - Bedrooms of America's Young War Dead (sadness warning)
• Make your own fortune...cookies
• This guy's Star Wars collection rivals mine
• Photos you could go to jail for

...and this thanks to Clinch

Now go enjoy this weather while it lasts.

Alice in Wonderland is wunderbar.

Nay, I did not celebrate St. Patter's day yesterday. I drank some beer but it definitely wasn't celebratory - I even said no when the lady asked me if I wanted the green kind - my lame-o-matic meter overloaded a little more than usual for second there. I did manage to see Alice in Wonderland in 3D though. It was pretty good and although it had tons of in your face 3D moments it didn't seem nearly as 3D as Avatar for some reason. We even caught a glimpse of the new Tron trailer too!

I guess 3D movies are the trend now, but when I go to the movies these days and use those coupons I gotta carry some spare change to pay the extra for those glasses that you throw away at the end anyway. I guess that's the price you gotta pay to see tea cups and swords flying in your face.

With all the new movies coming out in 3D though, you gotta ask yourself how they do it? I'm not Johnny Depp so I don't know what its like to have tons of teens screaming my name when I go out act in front of a green screen. It's probably gotta require some skill and imagination to talk to and prance around talking to imaginary characters on a set that doesn't really exist. That reminds me, there was a lot of running in the movie as well. Alice has got some stamina.

Blogomatic3000 had a cool article explaining the process. That future technology beguiles me.

Like most things, this too shall pass...

So I knew about that other OK Go video, but to my surprise when I went to re-watch it today I found this even more awesome video (in full HD) where they made a Rube Goldberg Machine (apparently sponsored by State Farm...). Watch it now!

Totally busted...but not really...

I had a combination coolface and everything went better than expected moment tonight...

So back when I was expanding my business casual wardrobe I hit up Sears when they had a huge sale on the last day of the Olympics. Today, I go to put on one of the shirts I bought and what did I find? One of those damn ink security things. Usually I'm pretty good with keeping my bills but for the life of me I couldn't find this one. For the last two weeks I've worn every single shirt and this one was next in line but my new shirt a day plan got foiled. Totally annoyed, I decided to go to Sears and ask them to remove it instead of trying to MacGyver the thing.

How do you make yourself look guilty when you're completely innocent? Let me tell you.

I walk in carrying the only Sears bag I could find, which was the one I had gotten two weeks ago. It was huge - the kind of bag you would get if you bought a duvet or something cause I really bought a lot of stuff that day. All I had in it was one shirt. Mistake #1.

I walk up to the lady and said, "Hi, I bought this a while back and just found that it still had this security thing on it. She says, "Do you have your bill?" I didn't but I asked her if she could pull it up from the machine if I have my credit card and I take my card out and show it to her. She sort of gives me this I dunno kind of look and reluctantly says, "No...but...well usually we would never do this but I'm gonna trust you." Before she even finished the sentence I had put my card back in my wallet and into my back pocket. Even worse I leaned on the counter with my coolface on. Mistake #2 and #3.

I think she was kind of doubting herself at this point because she asked me which section I bought it in, if anyone helped me, etc. I played it cool and said, "The men's section. Over there." O RLY? Mistake #4.

She then asks me when I bought it and I'm like, "A few weeks ago when you guys had a huge sale...Canada Day!" No it wasn't, Canada Day hasn't even passed yet. I think she miss-heard or something because she was like, "Oh yeah, big sale it's easy to miss a tag when you're going through so much clothes." I'm like, "Yeah, I probably lost the receipt when I was taking the tags off all the clothes..." She didn't even know that I had lost it, just that I didn't have it there. Then out of nowhere she finds the ripped price tag from the shirt. Wtf? Mistake #5 and #6.

She hands the shirt back to me and says, "Here you go, now you can wear it." I say thanks and I'm not even sure why I did it but as she handed the thing to me I stuffed it into the bag and high tailed it out of there like a bat out of hell. Mistake #7.

Lucky #7 because at this point I probably looked as guilty as OJ and for some reason felt it. While I hadn't committed any crime, the lady probably thought that I was just some good looking scrub that took a shirt off a hanger, stuffed it into a bag and Ocean 11'd her. I can only say that the one crime I had committed was looking that good. Win!

Back in action

First, a big thanks to the Emperor for not kicking me off the blog due to my lack of posts : )

So I've been thinking about doing an Olympic recap but thought it seemed a bit silly since they ended two weeks ago...but they were just so awesome that I can't not write about them at all! I had James staying with me for the first week of the Games and we had some good times, just like back in the day. His friend Kris stayed for a few days too. We had a lot of fun going to the different houses, walking around and doing a lot of eating and drinking! The energy in the city was incredible. There were so many people in the streets at all times of the day...it was a bit mental walking around, but there was so much to see that even for someone like me who loses their patience in a crowd, you wanted to be in the middle of it! The sea of red and white was very cool to see and I miss the random high fives walking down the street.

One of the coolest things was on the day of the gold medal hockey game. I watched regulation time in a bar (which is the best way to watch a big game) and then had to work at the store...which I was very unimpressed about since most of the people I work with are gay and don't care about hockey and they had the afternoon off...anyways, I worked at 3 so the game was in overtime as I'm heading to work. The streets were dead, the city is so quiet except for the occassional "ooooh" since everyone was watching the game. Then all of the sudden the city errupted!! I couldn't see anyone but I could hear so much yelling and cheering I instantly knew Canada won! It was a neat experience. Then a few minutes later the streets filled and it was madness. The store manager was worried that we'd get "rushed"...seriously, but everyone was too busy drinking and cheering to be shopping for housewares!

The games came and went so fast and the city was in a bit of shock after they were gone. I'm glad the clock is still up, since it was counting down to the Paralympic games. The atmosphere isn't the same even though the Paralympic games are on. Some of the country/provincial houses are still open so I may check them out as the line ups will be way shorter. All in all, I think Vancouver and Canada did a kick ass job!

Now all of you come visit me in Vancouver!!

illScarlet was...ill?

So I went to a concert the other night and it's been a while since I was surrounded by so many teens - I think it was called high school. You know the crowd is going to be different when kids under 19 get to walk straight through security while you wait in line. There were also a fair bit of parents there but to be honest if I were to let my high school kids go to a place like that I would probably have to be there as well getting crunk and letting them student drive me home as a chaperone.

As an aside, I don't even know if kids use that anymore, crunk? I know they say ill a lot, but can I step that up and say that something is Ebola or the Plague? Or does it not work like that? Kids these days...

I wasn't too familiar with the headliner illScarlett other than having seen a couple YouTube videos and I had completely no idea who the other bands were, so I wasn't quite sure what I was getting into. You know there might be some sort of generational gap when some group called StereoKid comes on and everyone rushes to the stage, goes bat-shit, crowd surfing, throwing beach balls and screaming lyrics only 2 songs into the set...and you have no idea who these scrubs are or that wearing wife beaters in public became cool again.

Is this what's cool now? Cause I have no idea. My definition of cool is based on what I see in the mirror. Thank you, thank you.

Anyway, it was fun to check out a another scene than the usual, the music was pretty awesome as well and all the beer didn't hurt either. Us old folks like to cut loose every now and again too you know.

On a different note, I got a hold of a Blackberry Curve. It's an older model but at least it was free - gonna see what all the fuss is about...maybe.

It's concert time in Toronto!

Ladies, contrary to popular belief the Alicia Keys concert that you attended last night was not part of the great Canadian Music Fest. Not by a long shot.

Let me share a little personal info with you: although local Toronto hero Danko Jones is one of my idols, I have yet to see him in concert. This is my secret shame. I'm not a huge concert goer but I do make exceptions every now and again to see bands that I really enjoy...or if I just want to get out. Part of it is because the bands that I like usually play on weird weeknights and the other part is that I'm horrible at getting tickets to anything. Logistics are something that I usually leave up to my so called friends. Also, I still haven't figured out whether or not I enjoy getting into a mosh pit. Just for the record, the last few concerts I went to were Jon Lajoie (if you can even call it a convert, see video below), Sloan and Bedouin Soundclash - no mosh pits, FYI...lol.

Time to break out some leather and get my shake on. Weekend here we come.

So much ski video to edit...

So I've finally decided to have a go at the 72 gigs of video we took with Jon's GoPro on our epic ski trip. Well it's been a few weeks now so what's been holding me back you ask? Ok, you didn't but I'm gonna tell you anyway.

Here's the deal: the GoPro HD takes ready to view HD video (duh!) but that's not the tricky part. Here's some info from their site.

HD Video Resolution Modes:

• 1080p = 1920x1080 pixels (16:9), 30 fps, 15 Mbit/s data rate
• 960p = 1280x960 pixels (4:3), 30 fps, 12 Mbit/s data rate
• 720p = 1280x720 pixels (16:9), 60 fps, 15 Mbit/s data rate
• 720p = 1280x720 pixels (16:9), 30 fps, 8 Mbit/s data rate
• WVGA = 848x480 pixels (16:9), 60 fps, 8 Mbit/s data rate

Video Format: H.264 compression, saved as Windows- & Mac-compatible MPEG4 (.mp4) file

While it's impressive, that's the killer: H.264 .mp4 file

If you've download HD videos off YouTube before you'd know that the file is also an mp4 which is more or less the same type of video the GoPro takes.

What does that mean? Well, I guess to save space on your SD card the GoPro exports highly compressed video like that to save space and so you can upload/watch it right away. The bad news is that this type of video isn't really meant to be edited, and that's the problem.

So what's the solutions? Well we have to convert it into a format recognized by Premiere Pro or Final Cut Pro so we can edit it. That's sort of counter-productive, but there's no other way to directly edit it...that we know of.

Oh well, gotta get it started somehow. It's too bad Jon's overseas or we could have split the video conversion half/half.

Spring is here? ICWTPOSS (I can't wait to put on some shorts)

One of the things that I'm still getting used to at work is the intense use of acronyms. When people talk I have no idea what's going on it's sometimes hard to follow because every second word out of their mouths is some sort of abbreviation

It ain't no joke. On the employee portal I managed to find a 7 page document with some of the most commonly used acronyms. I printed it out, and being part of a technical group I find myself adding to it daily. No shame here.

Regardless, nothing on that list compares to my favorite acronym of all time: Phil Mickelson's nickname, FIGJAM (F*** I'm Good Just Ask Me).

Beautiful weekend...now back to my cube.

Injury free since...2010!

Well, major ski injuries anyway. I had my fair share of spills, especially in Vermont, but I can safely say that there was no Season Ender this round. That extends my streak to 1 year! *knock on wood*

Anyway, we took it relatively easy today as the temperature was about 5 degrees Celsius - it was pretty choppy and the snow was real heavy and we sucked. None of us wanted to be that guy who fractured/dislocated/sprained/cut/concussed + any body part on the last ski day of the year. Having taken almost a month off since this year's ski trip, we were a little rusty/struggled like pros.

Spring here we come.

Weekend high five!

Made it through my first week of work alive. Now time to hit the slopes...or what's left of them.

Thanks to Clinch for the image.

Not so casual Fridays...

It's no surpise that I had to spend a few dollars on a new business casual wardrobe and to be honest I've probably done more ironing this week than I've done in the past year. What was a surpise though is that I wasn't quite sure how to approach today. Casual Fridays anyone?

I'm still getting down with the policies around here so I totally did not know if every Friday is casual, last Friday of the month or just never. I asked a co-worker and they said they like to keep it pimp tight pretty casual all the time, but I wasn't quite sure what that means. I don't want to be that guy as I walk through the cafeteria wearing dress pants with hundreds, if not thousands of people staring at me...but at the same time I don't know if my Tupac tshirt would be frowned upon either.

It reminded me of the time I had to go to a client meeting on a Friday and it just happened to be the first time I was going to meet them, so I wore dress pants/dress shirt only to discover they took it real casual on Fridays...awkward.

I'm definitely not the kind of guy that tucks anything into his jeans or wears dress shoes with them. I'm not exactly sure what's going on but it seems that the higher the floor you're on the more business you dress...all the time. I'm gonna have to play this one by ear and see what I can get away with. To give you some perspective, Friday's in the summer at my last job meant some of us wore shorts.

I also have to get used to the fact that I have to carry all my associated security stuff EVERYWHERE or I might get locked in the 6th floor stairwell again. While most people opt for that sissy string pully thing I've opted to buy my own metal chain one - the kind that janitors use to carry all their keys and knives. It also doubles as a choke wire in case I have to assassinate anyone on my way to work. Just sayin'.

Tequila Taste Test

Take it from a lady who has 35 types of tequila at her bar, unless it says 100% agave then you can be drinking just about anything. If it doesn't say 100% then its probably %50 agave + 50% sugar water, watered down rum or donkey urine.

We did a tequila taste test in Stowe at the Cactus Cafe, and by we I mean not me because I was DD. How's that for responsibility?

Here's a video of some guys who came in hating on tequila and knew nothing about it, but were lucky enough to get schooled on it's finder points by an old pro. I totally spy cam'd her.

This ain't your lame old Sauza.



On a technical note it took about 28 mins to encode this video (while I was playing Tetris and watching a movie at the same time), so it sure beats what would have been 3 hours on my old machine. But what was surprising is that the computer hit 68 degrees C while doing so -  too hot to handle!

Multiple types of withdrawal.

Now that the Olympics are over I think I'm suffering from Olympics Withdrawal.

Seriously, for the past two weeks you could basically turn on the TV at any given time, there would be live (high-stakes) sports going on and people would cry. Now, it seems the best I can do is watch Ricardo and Friends. No more snow bunnies!

And its true what they say: you don't know what you've got til it's gone. This corporate firewall ordeal is really sucking the life out of me. I got rid of Buzz the other day but then I re-enabled it tonight just because I felt I needed something more to look at when I get home.

And that brings me to this: Blackberry Bold 9700 vs iPhone 3GS

At this point I'm going with the Blackberry just because I've never had one before - it intrigues me. I'm somehow led to believe that typing on it is going to be awesome. Because of my iPod I don't think apps are a big deal, so there's no love lost there and typing emails or long messages on it is a struggle at best.

They say that iPhones are for people who want something to do and Blackberries are for people who think they have something to do, and by they I mean me. How's that for perspective?

New job, new blog.

Another first day of work and what a coincidence that I'm writing the bdddlog's 100th post about it. Well I'm glad I made it this far, with some help (of course) along the way.

I can't say much about the new job but I can tell you one thing about going corporate: being behind a firewall blows. It's a total cock-block from the outside world and because of it I'm now in the market for a Blackberry or iPhone just so I can check my email and message my friends. Seriously.

Anyway, here are a few crazy post-processed photos I edited using some of Aperture's presets.







That is it, I'm going to bed now. I have a feeling it's going to be a long week.