Author: chuma

Do you like Diesel Sweeties?
Do you own a Newton? You might want these then.

If you’re a SoulSeek user and your client suddenly doesn’t work, go here. If you’re looking for a good P2P app, then go there anyways.

Well, because of PHP stuff still not being built (Stany, do you read this?), I haven’t been writing here. But this is no longer an issue, because I am done working at the big bad bank. Finito. No longer.
Finished. Bye-bye. Sayonara. It’s done. Over.

So, you ask, what bigger and better things have I moved on to now? The answer is: I can’t really say other than:

• I’m working in Guelph
• It’s for a brand-new company
• I’m Lead Developer
• It’s top-secret™
• I’m very happy to be there

I picked this job out of about five I was offered, total. It was pretty nuts for a while there: I had some people who wanted to break my contract that afternoon so I could go work for them. But I ended up picking this position: it’s just an opportunity I couldn’t refuse.

On Thursday we had a SONUG meeting. It was pretty good. Oh, and I got interviewed by Wired. That was cool too.

In other news… Acer monitors suck huge ass. Don’t buy them. Even worse, Acer monitor repair depots are open from 9-4, M-F. Does anyone who has a full-time job have time to frickin’ drop their monitor off between 9-4 on a weekday? It’s not exactly one of those things you can get off for, like a dentist appointment: “Uh, sorry boss, I can’t come to work tomorrow morning, my monitor’s sick and I have to drive it to Richmond Hill.” I don’t think so. This monitor has been in service for less than six months. It’s dead. I hate Acer. They made me wait a week until I had the time to actually DRIVE the monitor 100km so I can wait at least a week to get it fixed. Fuckers.

I scanned this from the back of the box of my Sony headphones a while ago.
It’s just so simple yet cool.

Released LaunchPLS 1.0 today. Only interesting if you’re a Newton user with Newt’s Cape and MAD Max. But cool nonetheless.

… and why do I end up buying it? Picked up a Siemens Pocket Reader the other day for cheap. Neat little thing, works pretty well. What am I going to do with it? I have no idea, but I’m sure it’ll come in handy as long as I keep it with me.

Been updating the photos section lately. Go check it out.

I hate it when I spell things wrong.

Still lots Of WYD pilgrims in town. They don’t blend too well I’m afraid: those matching bags and site passes are kinda a giveaway.

Lack of writings here lately is due to some stupid PHP exploit, and the fact that my admin has disabled it until he installs the new version, which I guess hasn’t happened yet.

There should be no talking in the men’s room. Period. Unless it’s to say “You have toilet paper stuck to your shoe.” I can’t stand people who conduct impromptu business meetings in there. Some of us are trying to concentrate, you know.

The new Sleater-Kinney is good. I must say one thing though: it is loud. There aren’t any pansy-ass tracks on this album; not that I didn’t enjoy You’re no Rock and Roll Fun from All Hands on the Bad One. That’s my favourite song from that album. But One Beat is heavy: either grinding guitars, or slow songs bordering on morose. It’s good that way. I’m going to be giving HMV my $25 just so I can give the band $1. Sigh. Damn recording industry. That’ll be the first CD I’ve bought from a store in a long time (probably since Bran Van 3000’s Discosis). Man, if they ever come even close to Toronto, I’m so there. They’ll be in New York on Saturday, actually, but I’ve already got plans.

This week was kinda depressing, but yesterday and today I pulled myself up by the bootstraps (with some help). There was Saturday, with “Dear Bank: why did you debit my account for a negative payroll?”, “The Spence Diamonds Experience™”, “Toronto Drivers are Jerks who Park Badly at Ikea”, and as a result of this “Me acting badly to the person I love the most”. With that out of the way, Sunday was my birthday. I only found out a few years ago that July 14 is Bastille Day in France: the anniversary of the start of the French Revolution in 1789. Now my birthday always feels like an entire nation is partying for me. In typical birthday style, I did nothing all day, which felt great. Sandy and I went for dinner with the folks, at Kaliedoscope in Guelph. Never been there before: it’s without a doubt the nicest restaurant in Guelph, and we had a nice time. The food was really good. Having read Kitchen Confidental though, I imagined that every time our server went back into the kitchen there were people screaming and throwing knives around. Sandy almost couldn’t come because she usually has her lifesaving class on Sunday, but she skipped it to be with me. We made it up last night: she was in the pool and I sat outside the pool, on a bench, alternately watching and studying Calculus. Ah, calculus. When I am done with you we are going out to the middle of nowhere and having a nice, smoky bonfire with all your papers. No one has yet made me see what use you are.

Photos from my recent trip to Yugoslavia are up now.

New Sleater-Kinney CD is out on August 20. That, along with Super Mario Sunshine for GameCube on August 26, is what I will be blowing my money on that month…

In other news, today’s my birthday. In other other news, people in Toronto are really rude. And they park badly. But their garbage is being picked up again.

Even with the current state of garbage collection in Toronto, tourists are still here in droves. Since I work very close to the SkyDome and CN Tower, I see lots of tourists at street level. Here’s a quick guide on how to spot an American tourist in a crowd. (Not that I have anything against most Americans. This is just for fun, really.)

• Men: often wearing t-shirts or hats related to 9/11, FDNY, or US Armed Forces. Baseball caps with the above subjects are a dead giveaway. Also, large Ray-Ban sunglasses.
• Women: big hair, especially big frizzy hair. Skin-tight or spandex pants. Cigarettes.