Posted 10:02 AM by Tim
So. The first real week of work is coming to a close. I must say that it has been pretty much what I expected. This is both good and bad. Very few surprises is good, but the sheer predictabilty of my workday is a little bad.

I'm headed north today, away from all the hustle and bustle (yeah right) of busy Kitchener. Woo. Yeah. I'm not sure just what will be left with the moving party, but I think I heard something about painting? All told, yeah, sounds good.

The carpool thing is a little more difficult than I imagined. If I'm a little behind, I'm delaying at least 3 others on their route to work. I've been late the last 2 days, largely due to just not getting there on time (heehee - that's a joke people!). Anyhow, I'm going to have to figure out a way to leave earlier so that I get there on time with no hassles. I'm sure I can work out something.

Posted 1:02 PM by Tim
My robot minions!

Ok. What's that all about? Well, basically, I went looking at this surplus electronics store. They have a ton of stuff there. Keyboards, hard drives, circuitboards, components, switches, resistors, capacators (huge ones too - capable of holding, like 350 V!!!), etc. All for cheap. Really cheap. If I had an electronics project in mind, this is the sort of place I'd want to know about.

Actually, I have a few projects I'd love to work on (most of which range from mildly annoying to potentially lethal). I'll probably stick with anything non-lethal that I can think up. I haven't got a workshop though, and my knowledge of electronics verges on non-existant. I've got a beginner book somewhere in the books I own, and there was at least one project that I was hoping to try out.

Anyway, maybe I can finally get my robot minions started?

Posted 10:11 AM by Tim
No Vampire last night. Its been moved to tonight instead. That's no problem, as long as I get a chance to get everyone to try it out at least. Maybe someone will like it enough to give it a few more tries later too.

I'd say that the house is different without the girls in it, but frankly, I haven't been there enough to notice. Wayne was still moving a bit of his stuff out of the old apartment yesterday (and he'll continue to do so until about Saturday). That took up a fair part of the evening, and then we watched Banzai, so there was very little time to notice these things.

In other areas of life, I'm pretty much back into the working grind. I get up at 4:30AM, and I'm home from work at 6:30PM. That's a lot better than it was, but it's still pretty draining. I've just got to get back into my exercise routine and maybe a little extra sleep would help.

Posted 2:26 PM by Tim
A couple of things to get out of the way. First, the birthday for the elder child went alright. Many new and exciting friends (they must be exciting, everyone seems to be excited) came and ate cake. Woo. Second, the home network (still unnamed), is starting to work. Once the DSL modem was configured properly, the router started to run, and the systems took notice of their new IP addresses. We're still working out the cabling.

Next up, Brenda is (has) taken the girls to help move her sister (their aunt) to their new house. I'll be joining in about 3 days. I"m hoping the move will be a formality by then.

Lastly, we're supposed to play some Vampire: The Eternal Struggle tonight. I've got at least 3 other people willing to learn (possibly more if things go right). The game, for Magic players like us, I don't see learning the rules to be that difficult overall. The main stumbling blocks will be the mechanics of the rules where they differ from Magic.

One of the things I want to do is describe the clans of the different starter sets that I have. These are, namely, Brujha antitribu, Lasombra, Tzimise, Giovanni, Assamite and Malkavian. The basic descriptions are pretty simple for all but the Malkavians. Because I have the time, I'll lay them out for you.

Brujha antitribu: Imagine every bouncer, bully and thug you've ever known, but make them faster, more violent and angry.

Lasombra: Think politicians with a lot of leeway to eliminate rivals.

Tzimise: They make evil scientists afraid.

Giovanni: An Italian Mob family - back from the dead.

Assasmite: Assassins.

Malkavians. See, these are the difficult ones to describe. The closest I can get is this: Imagine an insane assylum where the inmates have a political agenda. Most groups have an agenda like, "if we don't take over the world, someone else will. We have to stop them." But twist this with insane logic and semantic replacements into, "chickens take over the world. Eat someone else, Will. Most of us have chins." This would be their political agena, and most likely describe a hefty amount of the plans to implement it.

I love Malkavians. I'd role play them if I knew a group that would tolerate a player playing one. See, most people play a Malk by simply acting as outrageously as possible and getting in the way of everyone and everything. That's not a good way to play (though it can be thoroughly enjoyable). The best way to play is to pick a few real psychological issues and apply Malk logic to anything requiring thought. Malk logic is lose and easy, but difficult to employ without thought (without being insane or having a lot of practice). Some ideas would be things like taking a phrase more literally (or less literally) than intended. You could try inverting the clauses - add in a few nots here and there. There's lots of fun to be had with Malk logic.

Anyhow, I hope the gaming goes well tonight.

Posted 10:51 AM by Tim
Ok. We're going to get the hardware tonight. I am so hoping that this suddenly solves the network problems. If it doesn't, we're going to have to consider returning the router for a less complicated model (a hub probably).

The oldest is having her birthday today. We're probably going to keep it low-kety today, and focus on the real festivities later this week. She's 6. I can't believe it's been 6 years already. Where does all the time go?

Posted 11:02 AM by Tim
Ok, I'm officially at work all by myself now. Not that I needed that much additional training, but hey, it was nice to have the company. Anyhow, I arrived at about 7:30AM, and was the only person in the office. Not too bad really. I wandered into the washroom and the motion sensors turned on all the lights in there. Of course, they're all energy blubs, so there was a very paparazzi-like feel to entering the bathroom. I did kinda feel like I just woke up all these sleeping lights, too. Ah well, enough delusional thought for today.

We're working on getting a house network going. A little bit of trouble getting anything to recognize the router we bought. I think that we need to get the DSL modem hooked into the thing first. Maybe that will solve all the troubles.

My sister-in-law is moving this week. Brenda is going away to help her with the move, leaving me and Wayne to our own devices. I hope we can keep the house clean (and maybe get that network finished so we can deathmatch in Q3A). I'll be heading out that way this weekend to help finalize the move, so Wayne'll be left to the house on his own. That'll be nice.

In other news, the work front seems to be pretty solid. I've got a bit of a side-job offer, which should help out with the money situation, while simultaneously ruining the tax situation. Gah, I'm gonna hate taxes this year. We need to put away a lot more money for the tax man to take.

Posted 9:52 AM by Tim
Last night's apple cooking turned out to be disasteriffic We didn't manage to get very much juice from the apples, and made a large mess. We're going to look into a press or something similar to speed up the process.

I bought myself a lava lamp - well, a motion lamp, since it is not lava brand. I've always wanted one, and the price went down enough to make it worth buying. It takes a long time to get started, but it is pretty nice.

This weekend is going to be interesting. There's a game on, some friends are going to visit for a little bit and Bren will get out of the house for a while to do a bit of shopping. I think it'll all be good.

Posted 1:36 PM by Tim
Woo! Work. Yeah. It's just as if I'd never left. Well, maybe it would be just like it if I had been doing something slightly different than what I had been doing... anyway, that's not the point. The point is, I'm working again.

Of course, as soon as I'm at work, I get a ton of ideas for things to blog about, and projects that I can really only work on when I'm at home. Gah. Isn't that just the way?

I took the carpool into work today, which is about 1 hour shorter than my previous carpool (that's got me down to about 1.5 hours one way now). Not terrible at all. I can still sleep in the car on the way there and back, which is very nice.

The apartment is coming along nicely. Bren and I have bought a few carloads of additional furniture for the new place (shelving mostly), which requires just a tiny bit of assembly in some cases. This increases our total dead weight to about a full 26 foot truck (we more or less filled the one we moved with this time - and I knew we would end up getting more stuff here).

We're still in unpacking mode. This is largely due to the amazing volume of books that I own. I've got a lot, and most of them are random things that I've picked up here and there. The girls shouldn't run out of reading material.

Oh, yes, I want to mention that I'm finally done with the blanket that I was making. Technically, I've been making it for 4 years now (since my youngest was born), but actually it's only been a few months. It's taken me so long to get it done because I've moved a few times, and have pretty much ignored the project as I went along. Now that I've got that done, it's time for a new project.

On the drawing front, I've been pretty lax. I haven't drawn anything worthwile (or really, at all) in about three weeks. I will have to start doing that again. I did go out and buy a new sketchpad (as my original sketchpad was converted into the main drawing pad). Once I get something going, I will let everyone know what's going on.

Posted 11:52 PM by Tim
A quick note. First, Morpheus is a terrible program. I won't give a link, but I will say that it is a pain to uninstall. You have to run 2 separate uninstall programs (it shadow-loads a few apps for you - arg). Then unload a separate app from the registry, and finally, clean out the registry keys, folders and such left behind.

Second, Banzai is the funniest gameshow I've ever seen. And, as a bonus, you get to see a nice pair of tits at some point during the program. Really though, it is a very funny show. The commentary is what really makes the show shine.

I work tomorrow. I'll probably blog there.

Posted 7:33 PM by Tim
Finally, a post. It's been a little while since I've had a few moments to actually post anything, and a lot of things have happened. Let me relate them to you.

First, the furniture piece did not get finished like I wanted. It's going to have to be re-stripped and refinished.

Second, I have a job again. Back at the last place I worked, but in a different area (though still related to the same thing I was doing there before).

Lastly, we're entirely moved into the house. We will be working for what seems like a possible eternity to get everything sorted out in the apartment, but it will eventually become a livable space. Wayne is here with us, and he'll probably be completely moved in within a week or so.

So, overall life is good. Things (especially the money thing) are starting to look reasonable, and we're getting along well with all the things that need doing. I haven't had much time for drawing lately, but I'll fix that up soon.

Posted 6:45 PM by Tim
Arrghh... that one piece of furniture is bothering me. I need to stain it so that it looks nice, but it's not working out. It looks like I'm going to have to strip it, and restain. But that will take a lot longer than I have tomorrow for working on the piece. I'll see what I have time for tomorrow.

Posted 9:47 AM by Tim
Only enough time for a quick catchup note really. The move is now only 2 days away. We pack everything into the truck tomorrow and move out in the morning the next day. Then, of course, we unload. Woo.

I've been working a little bit on one last piece of furniture. We picked up an end table for $20. It had a fairly large damaged area, likely where someone left a glass or something. The finish was stripped down to the bare wood. That, or someone tried to strip it before and just gave up. Anyhow, we're stripping it ourselves. Then we're going to sand it smooth (the stripping harshes the wood), and then we'll re-stain and refinish it. I'm hoping that it'll match the coffee table that we bought last week (at a garage sale of course). I'd strip the coffee table too, but it's not real wood, so I can't.

That's the life at the moment. Oh, yeah, before I forget, there's some interesting things happening in the work world. We'll see how that goes.

Posted 11:10 AM by Tim
Morning!

Wow, consecutive posts on consecutive days. This is starting to feel like a daily blog again.

Anyhow, just thought that I'd drop a few words about the world of me. I've been mulling over the house network that's going to be setup at the new place. Wayne and I have a little bit of experience with it, so we're going to wire the whole house for high-speed internet. Collectively, we've got 4 computers to wire up. ROSA (my main system), VELMA (my laptop), HELGA (the old system, now used by the girls), and Wayne's own system (which lacks a name). I'm big on the idea of naming all the main component's of the network with some logical scheme. But, it'd have to be something everyone agrees on. My personal preference at the moment is using women's names for all the systems, and men's names for all the hardware (as evidenced by the system names listed above).

I'm thinking that we'll simply hook the high speed modem into a hub, and plug all the rest of the systems into that also. We can get away with NetBEUI for the main protocol that way (with IPX/SPX and/or TCP/IP supporting it), since we won't have any seperate segments. But, I digress.

I'm less worried about the implementation right now than a solid naming scheme. I've looked at the standard namgin schemes, and I don't like them. I've thought about using things like the planets (the hub then becomes Sol, and the systems get planet names, but I'm not sure what the modem gets named -- and Wayne's said that he's not going anywhere near Uranus).

I've thoght of greek gods (making the hub something like Zeus or Hera, and the modem being that god-messenger). There's lots of other schemes too. But I haven't found any that's really at least as appealing as using peoples names. After all, it becomes a lot more fun to say that Steve (the hub) won't interface with Rosa for some reason, and that Fred (the modem) keeps going down on Velma. At least, that's what I think.

Posted 5:52 PM by Tim
Ok. I've got a moment, so I'm going to do a quick post. The moving details have got me a little bogged down. Brenda finished off the dresser that I had started earlier, and put on a set of wooden knobs instead of the metal handles that were on there before. I think it looks very nice.

So much moving stuff left to do. So little time. Wayne says that he's moved a little of his stuff into the new place, so I suppose it's getting closer to being a real home. Soon it might even feel like it.

Posted 9:44 AM by Tim
Bwah. It's been a few days and I haven't posted. The main culprits are months with a distinct lack of sleep, and Warcraft 3. Wayne has a copy of the game, and I've been playing the undead for a few days. Last mission. Gahr. Not an easy one either.

Anyhow, the apartment is starting to take some shape. There were a number of issues with it when I first arrived, but I think that I've got almost all of them fixed. And by "I", I mean, the landlord. She must hate me, because every day that I'm there I come by her apartment and tell her that something else is broken.

Wayne has been trying to get his new video card into his computer for a while now. It hasn't worked. We're starting to think that he's got a bad card. I think he'll be returning it today for a new one. I've got to get really hacking on the job search. I've got a few things that need checking out, and I've got to get some copies printed. That's just the start though. Lots of plans.

Hmm... not too much else to report today. We'll see what happens today - maybe there'll be something to post tomorrow.

Posted 11:43 PM by Tim
Went home for the weekend. Picked up a few things while I was there. Worked on finishing off that furniture piece I started just before I left last time. It looks good, but there are a few areas I wish I had sanded a little better.

The drive back here was interesting. Traffic was heavy on the main highways, so we detoured along the back roads for a while. The journey would have been really bad if it hadn't been for the generous use of short-range radios. This allowed Wayne and I to talk to each other during the ride, rather than try to decipher hand signals. A task made more difficult by the lack of light.

Wayne reminded me that there was one funny incident involving him spilling a large pop over the counter at a Tim Hortons, but really, it could have happened to anyone.

The radios we use are interesting. They're short range, which means that they have a range of maybe 1 km. That's not really that far, but it's more than sufficient inside a mall, or on the highway. They work best over flat, open terrain (like a highway), and aren't that bad. Of course, they are public band (FRS), so occasionally you get in range of another set of them (or more rarely, a group). Sometimes (Wayne and I have done this sort of trip before), we'll get someone we can talk to, but most often, the group we get in range of is going the other way. We did hit a few groups tonight also, but we didn't really manage any conversations.

So, I'm back, and tomorrow, I check out the new house again to see if there's anything that hasn't been done yet.

Posted 9:16 AM by Tim
I'm hanging out with Wayne today. Gotta move stuff to the new place. There's a lot of work still to be done by the building people. Painting, cleaning, moving things around. So, I really won't be able to live there for a couple of days at least.

I"m judging a small event today. That ought to be interesting at the very least.

The weather here is HOT. Muggy and humid. Just not a good thing. Outside is a little better though. At least there is a little wind blowing.

Blogs are going to be sporadic until things get settled down a little bit more. Or at least until I get an internet connection again.