Author: chuma

A week ago now I got an e-mail from a Russian guy by the name of Alexander Nickolsky who told me what “chuma” actually means (apparently):

Just FYI:
‘chumovoy’ is an adjective. It’s from ‘chuma’ – lit. plague, in slang exclamation ‘chuma !’ can be translated as ‘wild’, or ‘cool’ or more precisely – ‘unbeliveable’, ‘fantastic’
used for expression of admiration of something Example

• I’ve got a new Pentium III 800 Mhz
• Chuma !

So there could be ‘chumovoy tall-tale teller’ Note that ‘chumovoy’ is derived exactly and only from the slang meaning of ‘chuma’ and is not connected with the primary meaning of ‘plague’.

I can live with that. I’ll have to add this to an about page sometime.

Today was my birthday. Hard to believe I’m 20. Already birthdays have ceased to be important for me. Today I went to the opthamologist and then picked out a new pair of glasses – that was fun. Then I went to work for about, oh, 15 minutes, and then was at COMDEX/Canada for the rest of the day.

My body currently hates me because I played football for three hours yesterday evening and then walked around all afternoon. I have no legs. At least, I can’t feel them, and they steadfastly refuse to move, so I might as well not have any.

At dinner with my parents I got tickets to the du Maurier Open Tennis Final. Nice.

This picture is making me think of switching to BSD.

Song: Phish – Sample in a Jar
I wheeled around because I
Didn’t hear what you had said
I saw you dancing with Elihu
Up on Leemor’s bed
And I was foggy rather groggy, you helped me to my car
The binding belt enclosing me, a Sample in a Jar

Not a lot of time to write in here lately. Almost all of my free time is being eaten up by a software project involving myself, a thesis student at the University of Indiana, and a software consultant in Paris, France. Is it fun? Yes.

Today at lunch I realized that I had started using the word “assmonkey” a lot in my speech, as in “You’re an assmonkey” or “Those cable installers are assmonkeys, all of them.” I got back to my desk and tried to register an assmonkey.* domain, but they were all taken. Goddamn assmonkeys.

Also at lunch today I bought a pound of Reese’s Pieces. Oh man. I almost got super-sick.

This week has been sheer and utter madness. And I only worked for four days.

Our full-time sysadmin is away on his honeymoon for two weeks, tso that leaves yours truly to fill in. All of the possible shit that could hit the proverbial sysadmin fan, did. And I had to handle it (which I think I did reasonably well). Those four days were crazy. But crazy is my middle name.

I god e-mail from Meredith but haven’t written her back yet – not that she said anything of substance, just “Hi, I sent you a letter.” Haven’t gotten her letter yet.

Tonight I’m organizing poker night. Not as good of a turnout as I expected, but oh well – it was on rather short notice. Next week will be better.

It’s the 4th of July. I don’t care, because I’m not from the USA. I’m more interested in the 14th of July, not because it’s Bastille Day, but because it’s my birthday, and I’ve been so busy recently that I just remembered.

Notice anything different?

Yesterday I was suddenly reminded what a horribly wasteful society I’m in the midst of. I was getting onto the subway, and there were two people standing in front of the station, each handing out a competing “subway” newspaper. (For anyone not in Toronto: these are newspapers that are totally free and are meant to be read by commuters-in-a-hurry so that they can get the days news fast. They’re usually 32 pages or under and are meant to be read in 20 minutes or so.) Continuing my policy of giving the cold shoulder to any form of mainstream (North American) media, I walk by without taking one. Inside the station now there’s another person handing out a third paper. Suddenly I think to myself “Gebus! Where is all of this paper going?”

I get off at my subway stop and I find my answer. Every single garbage can I see in the station is overflowing with these newspapers; in some cases, they’re piled two feet high on top of the garbage cans.

Later in the evening I was at a movie at that constant reminder of everything that’s wrong with society, the Famous Players Paramount. Outside of the theatre there was a sprinkler set up raining water down onto a section of the sidewalk. Its sole purpose was to promote the film The Perfect Storm, which opened that night. I felt the extreme need to find some employee and ask how much of the city’s water they had wasted today. (The apparatus was hooked up to a nearby fire hydrant.) If I hadn’t been with a friend I probably would have.

Bought an Air album yesterday. Loving it.

I hate the stupid Palm commercials on TV now. Especially because every Palm model except for the IIIc is backordered for three months (not that I’m buying one – it’s just ironic that you can’t buy the model featured in the ad – the Palm V)

Oh, and my CD-ROM drive at work is back in business – more MP3s for me.

The work atmosphere has been getting lighter as of late. Last night was a company drink / dinner night, which apparently there will be more of. (It used to be a regular thing, but got lost in the shuffle while the company was preparing to launch the site officially.)

The “Front Street Market” (glorifieid Dominion grocery store) has cheap candy-filled water guns in the bulk food section, for $2.99. I just bought one. It was pretty touch to get it out of the bin with the supplieed plastic scoop, but I eventually prevailed. When I got to the checkout the cashier tried to give me a bag for my water gun and chocolate bar – after a brief struggle, I gave the bag back and ran for my life.

I finally got confirmation from SimplyGames that they are shipping my Puzzle Bobble Mini cartridge out today! The Metal Slug: 1st Mission cart is delayed, though.

At the company dinner thing last night there was a live jazz band playing. The keyboardist looked exactly like my friend Cait from Guelph. Exactly. But then I got home and Cait was online, so it couldn’t have been her. I just told her that I found her long-lost twin.

Song: Amon Tobin – Stoney Street
What can I say, other than my sister has impeccable taste in music: this is a Ninja Tune CD.