chuma.org

Month: July 2004

  • Just what happened yesterday

    Last night when I got home I was incredibly tired. But it was the day to put a second coat on the “Blue Monster”: that’s the huge wall in our stairway that we’re painting blue. I moped around a bit and then did it with some help from my friends Mr. Extension Pole and Mr. Ladder.

    I try not to look at the walls after I paint them, because they never look right until they are completely dry. Still, I peeked at the wall this morning and it probably needs some more work.

    This morning while walking through BCE Place with the morning rush, I almost wiped out when a woman in front of me stopped to pick something up Off the ground. I turned around just long enough to see her lift her foot and pick up — I Swear — a contact lens. Shudder

  • John Shirley on marketing turning into brainwashing

    In this guestblog writeup on BoingBoing.net, John Shirley talks about what I’ve been thinking about marketing for the last 10 years: the lack of ethics, and the extreme tinkering with brain control going on.

    Best part of the writeup:

    A marketing guy at Toyota complains–he’s complaining about this!–that young people “have the total ability to block out anything they don’t want to get through…that’s what makes this animal so scary.” The Wired writers don’t seem to see, no one seems to see, which animal is really scary. What’s scary, dude, is that you think it’s scary that these guys have the free will to block out your advertising. Hey, there’s media overload, in our society, there’s advertising OD; people learn to block it out or their brains crash like an overtaxed computer.

  • The Newton is heating up again…

    The Newton community is attracting a lot of attention in the media again. Since the upcoming World-Wide Newton Conference has attracted ex-Newton engineers as well as enthusiasts, and former Apple CEO John Sculley is the honorary president of the Worldwide Newton Association, we’re getting press in places like Wired and Slashdot, and hopefully a few other publications too.

  • back on tour, 1-2-3

    Snagged the new Prodigy album/EP/whatever the other day. I’d heard the single ‘Girls’ before and it felt sort of lukewarm, and so did a lot of other people. Well, I’ve been listening to the album and I’m hooked on it, especially the track “Wake up Call”. So much grinding guitar goodness.

  • bloody comment spammers

    I’ve gotten over 50 comment spams in the last two hours. Therefore I’ve intentionally broken comment posting for now.

  • paint everywhere!

    We can now safely say that over half of the inside of our house is painted. We went on a painting blitz this weekend. There are only three basic painting tasks left!

    • Finish second coat on “The Blue Monster” – the single largest wall in the house, in the stairway – including ceiling detail and touch-ups
    • Finish kitchen, dining room, and living room – these rooms are all connected so they’re one task
    • Paint the computer room. Which means moving our ultra-heavy desks and bookshelves away from the walls.

    After that, there’ll be a few touch-ups and we’ll probably re-do the white on the baseboards. But it is coming along quite nicely! And we really want to get it done so we can invite our friends over for a big party!

  • CBC News: Prince Charles in ‘near miss’ – Damn it! Near miss?!

  • It’s my barf-day

    Yay me! I’m 24 today.

    Yesterday my parents and Sandy and I went out for dinner. Unfortunately last night Sandy woke up with food poisoning 🙁 I wasn’t feeling too hot either, plus I’ve gotten only 4 hours of sleep the last few nights because of Oliver hogging my side of the bed. So today I was forced to work from home! On my birthday! I hope they didn’t get a cake 🙁

  • why Canadian cell phone companies suck.

    It’s that time again… time to bitch about cell phone plans!

    Our contract with Rogers is up at the end of August, and Sandy is adamant about shopping around. I’m always up for getting a better deal, and for technology-related shopping, so I’ve already started looking at the companies again (Rogers, Telus, Bell, and Fido) to see what they’re offering.

    However, they’re all still out to gouge you in mostly the same ways:

    • Long Distance – Rogers and Telus charge 25¢ per minute for Canada/USA long distance. Bell charges 30¢ per minute! Fido’s got everyone beat here: only 10¢ per minute. This is a big deal for us, because our most common calls are between Whitby, Cannington, and Toronto, all of which are long distance calls from each other.
    • Most common features not included – No one bundles call display into any plan. Rogers just started charging an extra dollar for it. I personally hate voicemail. I don’t have it because it’s a waste of time. Call Display means that if I miss a call, my phone knows who called and 99% of the time I know who it is based on the number. Seriously, everyone wants call display. The first company to bundle it gets my business. At least Telus includes basic voicemail with some of its plans. Seriously though, why not let people choose one feature out of voicemail, call display, or call waiting? Fido and Bell bundle call display with their prepaid service. Hrm.
    • Only two out of four have multiple phone plans for personal accounts – Rogers and Telus let you have a second (or more) phone on the same account, sharing the airtime, for a low fee. We’ve got Rogers Family Plan right now and I’m loathe to bill two phones any other way.
    • Connection Fees. Actually, Bell doesn’t charge a connection fee anymore. Sometimes you can get it waived if you’re a new subscriber.
    • Continuously redefining “evenings and weekends” – The definition of “evening” and “weekend” varys from plan to plan on Telus Mobility’s site. What garbage!

  • happier things that we did this past weekend

    Besides caring for Oliver, we did do some other stuff this weekend:

    • On Friday we went to the last Erin Smith Band show for… a long time! Mike, their drummer, is off to BC for a while, so the band is going on an official hiatus. Nia at C’est What was packed and most of the people were friends of the band it seemed. They had tons of special guests on stage and the show was amazing, just awesome. It was also sad as everyone’s going to miss the band’s amazing energy and talent.
    • On Sunday Sandy’s folks delivered the rest of our wedding presents – specifically, the ones that wouldn’t fit in our car:
      • A backyard bench swing
      • A wooden bench
      • A fountain for the backyard

      They also delivered my birthday present, a few days early, but I don’t mind. I knew what it was going to be anyways: a brand spankin’ new ViewSonic Pro Series P95f+ monitor! Mmmm…. screen real estate. Thanks to Sandy, Brian, Jane, Mike, Nicole, and Raven!