The Kitten's Yarn

Twas the day after Christmas and back in the barn,
A cute little kitten was playing with yarn.
“I am so happy, as happy can be,
For Santa brought a ball of yarn just for me!”

It chased that yarn ball as it rolled cross the floor,
And batted it 'round then chased it some more.
Until as it rolled it got stuck on a nail
And that little kitten, it started to wail,

“Oh no, my poor yarn ball! It won't roll around!
It now only sits there attached to the ground!
Is there not someone here to help me out?”
Then, in the corner, continued to pout.

It just so happens, right then I walked by
And paused as my ears caught the poor kitten's cry.
I'm a sucker for kittens, in distress or not,
So I sped up walking to almost a trot

And entered that barn so the scene I could spy,
Which was so sad it brought a tear to my eye.
So sad and forlorn was that little cat!
I walked over and gave it's small head a pat

Then I noticed the yarn ball that started this mess
And pulled it off the nail with much finesse.
But the nail was still there so lickety split
I found some stuff that worked well to cover it.

In front of the kitten I put the ball down
And almost instantly that kitten's frown
Was turned to a smile as it's heart filled with glee.
“I have my yarn ball back! Hooray! Whoopee!”

As I walked away with a smile on my face
I vowed I would soon voyage back to that place
And visit the kitten with the ball of yarn,
Which was happily playing out back in the barn.

The Mother Of Invention

It has been said, “Necessity is the mother of invention.” I disagree. I think it's more accurate to list Invention's hypothetical parents as laziness and/or impatience. We don't call it that though—we say something “makes life easier.” So much stuff out there was invented because the old way was slower than we'd like and/or took too much work.

Think about it. There's really not a lot of things out there that were invented because there was a real and genuine need for it. Cars? Horse drawn carriages were just too slow. Light bulbs? We were too lazy to deal with proper care and safety procedures involved in using candles. Don't forget the printing press. Those scribes were just too lazy to write everything by hand, and we were too impatient to wait for them to do it. And then there's computers. Obviously another child of both laziness and impatience.

Don't get me wrong, though—I'm not knocking all the great things that have been invented. It's hard to mention life without most of them. I guess I'm just too lazy and impatient to do things “the old way.”

So Close, Yet So Far...

I should have been spending the night in my parents' spare bedroom. Instead, I'm in a hotel room in Edmonton. I should have spent the evening playing board games with my family, enjoying some great Christmas baking and maybe watching some TV. Instead, I spent it on airplanes and in airports.

It started with a flight from Kelowna to Edmonton. I was not on that flight, but for whatever reason it was delayed from leaving for 20 minutes. I was supposed to connect with this flight in Edmonton, which then would take me to Saskatoon.

Not only was that flight late leaving Kelowna, but there were technical difficulties when the plane was going to leave Edmonton. By the time we were finally taking off, it was an hour later than it should have been departing.

And then came the weather. While we were enroute to Saskatoon, it started to rain. Freezing rain. As the Captain was starting his descent, he learned that the runways had frozen over. Plus, there were strong winds too. Definitely a bad combination, so he turned the plane around and headed to...

Calgary. Once in Calgary, we all deplaned while we waited to find out what was going to happen. And waited. And waited. It was determined that, unless individuals decided to make their own alternate arrangements, we all would be flown... Wait for it... Back to Edmonton.

Of course, that meant more waiting, as they needed to bring in a new crew and sort out everyone's luggage, to sort out what was and wasn't going back to Edmonton. At least I was certain that my luggage wouldn't be lost, as I personally watched it being reloaded.

It was appreciated that the Captain and crew for this extra flight injected extra humor into everything they said to try and lighten the mood. There were lots of laughs to the Captain's comment that the Customer Service folks in Edmonton were already donning their tackle gear and hockey pads... But it was indeed very much appreciated that the Captain took the time to explain the situation and what happened, not to mention that he and the crew probably gave up their own evenings with family for us.

After getting into my room, at about midnight local time, I checked for my updated boarding pass online. The passengers from this flight were being put in to any empty seats on flights to Saskatoon the following day. It looks like I'm on the 3:20PM flight—exactly 24 hours after my original flight was supposed to leave Edmonton. Oh well. At least I do have a couple food vouchers, so I can have a nice lunch at the Chili's in the airport.

I guess I can say that today was a bit of an adventure... Just not one I hope to repeat anytime soon. It's a little frustrating to think that if the flight had even one less delay, it may have beaten the icy runway conditions. I hope and pray that things go smoother tomorrow. That would not be fun at all, to be turned away from Saskatoon two days in a row!

Santa Claws

I don't have a Christmas tree, but here's a short cartoon about one.

Home for the Holidays?

I had a strange realization last night. In a couple days I fly out to spend Christmas with my family, but I'm really not “Going home for the holidays.”

After I moved out on my own, my parents moved a couple times themselves but those other houses still felt like home to me, even though I never actually lived in either of them myself. But it's different now after this third move, to Saskatoon.

Other than the rare times with snow on the highways or some other road obstruction, I've never had to travel for longer than 40 minutes to spend time with my family. With their other houses I always felt at home there, as I was able to visit frequently and spent a lot of time there so I was strongly accustomed to them. In fact, while I lived in this apartment, to me home was my parents' house.

This Christmas I'm going to a house I've never even visited before. I know, technically I have been there back in September when I helped them move. But really, the extent of my time in their new home was just spending a day unloading a truck into the empty house and eating a quick-and-easy KFC take-out dinner. I spent that night back at my brother and sister-in-law's place and flew back to Abbotsford the following morning. I have a mental image of what their unpacked-and-set-up home might look like but that's it.

And now, with the extra physical distance between us, it takes much more time and expense to visit. I probably won't get out there more than a couple times a year, so by the time their house might start feeling like home, they'll be moving again and it'll start all over. Although I will certainly look forward to all my visits to see my family (although that may change after experiencing a Saskatoon winter...), I'm not sure that I'll be able to view my parents' house as home ever again.

And thus begins the process of redefining what home means to me.

I Saw Three Ships Do WHAT???

There is a well known Christmas carol that has the lyrics:

I saw three ships come sailing in On Christmas Day, on Christmas Day

. . .

O they sailed into Bethlehem, On Christmas Day, on Christmas Day

Obviously, the songwriter did not do his research, as Bethlehem is nowhere near water. I don't know how these ships are supposed to have sailed in. From the satellite photos, there doesn't even appear to be a river near it, or at least not one capable of having a ship sailing up it!

But I guess it's always possible he was actually referring to an airship...

Coke and Egg Nog

Christmas is the time where we all get to enjoy our favourite seasonal drinks, many of which tend to involve egg nog. I used to always wonder why, if everyone loves it so much, egg nog is only ever sold around the Christmas season. If they made it year-round, wouldn't they sell a considerable amount more? But then it hit me. If egg nog was readily available the whole year it wouldn't be special anymore and interest would wane, and over time annual sales would probably only be a negligible amount more than it is currently, as a seasonal item.

But I digress.

When it comes to seasonal drinks, a personal favourite of mine for years has been Coke and egg nog. Usually when I divulge that piece of information, people react like I'm some kind of freak. Well, perhaps I am, but that's a whole discussion for another day. Whether they've tried it or not, people have a preconceived notion that this is a gross combination. I can understand not wanting to try gross things. I personally am turned off of trying oysters because they look so gross when I watch people eat them. However, Coke and egg nog is simply two decidedly non-gross things that happen to be mixed together.

Here's the puzzling thing. Ask those same people if they would like a root beer float and I'm sure they'd love to have one. When you think about it, it's actually quite similar—a carbonated drink with a dairy product added. And for a while A&W even sold root beer milkshakes. It really doesn't seem like much of a stretch from that to consider mixing Coke and egg nog. I've also heard of root beer and egg nog or ginger ale and egg nog as other good combinations, although I haven't personally tried them yet.

So here's your homework. At least once this holiday season, I challenge you to try some Coke and egg nog (I usually go with a 50/50 mix). It doesn't even have to be a whole glass if you're not too brave; just try enough to form an informed opinion. If you end up not liking it, that's fine. Everyone has different tastes. But I've known more than one person who initially thought it sounded disgusting and changed their minds after actually trying it.

Carol of the Bells

The Worst Christmas Songs Ever

Okay, maybe that title is a little strong, but these are some Christmas songs I really can't stand hearing — the “Play this song and I'll shoot the radio” kind.

Mary's Boy Child, by Boney M
I don't know if I've ever heard anything else by Boney M, but this song alone makes me unlikely to actively seek out their other music.

Little Drummer Boy
I don't know why, but this song really annoys me. And the worst part is that at one church I used to attend, one of the worship leaders really liked leading the congregation in this song during the Christmas season. I don't know about you, but Pa rum pum pum pum doesn't exactly seem like fitting Sunday morning worship music.... But I have to admit that I do really like Jars of Clay's version. But maybe I'm just biased because they're one of my favourite bands.

Wonderful Christmastime, by Paul McCartney
This is probably the most annoying Christmas song I've ever heard. Except, of course, that I love Jars of Clay's rendition... Seriously, I didn't even recognize the song the first time through their Christmas album. Then when listening closer to the song later I realized it was “that song I hate hearing so much,” but I still like it. Jars of Clay's, that is. Not Paul McCartney's. Nothing would make me like the original version.

Feliz Navidad, by José Feliciano
This song is just too repetitive. I could write the entire lyrics out on one line. Well, except for some of the Spanish part. I have absolutely no idea what is being sung there aside from “Feliz Navidad.” And guess what, when trying to find a Youtube video for this song I found that Boney M also performed it. So that makes two Boney M songs I've heard, neither of which I like.

Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer, by Elmo and Patsy
This is one of those songs that was funny the first couple times, but I got sick of really quick. I bet if Jars of Clay were to record it I'd like it... But when it comes to novelty Christmas songs, I don't think I'll ever tire of Bob and Doug Mackenzie's 12 Days of Christmas.

Santa Baby, by Madonna
I first heard this song when I was in grade 7, when it was my class' contribution to the school's Christmas assembly. I didn't like it then, and I don't like it now. Actually, it looks like Madonna wasn't the original artist. I found a video of a performance of it from back in 1953, by Eartha Kitt. But I should consider myself lucky. One day, as part of the background music playing in stores, my sister heard this song being sung by a man. I think I'd rather listen to Madonna sing it.

And for an honourable mention...
Okay, this really isn't a song I hate; just one that I think it is quite overrated — The Hallelujah Chorus from Handel's Messiah. Yes, it's a great piece of music. But I don't understand why most people's reaction to it seems to be like it's the best piece of Christmas music on the planet, and having the chance to hear it live, or take part in singing it, is like the audio equivalent of seeing a double rainbow. Like how lots of Christmas presentations end with “a special treat” of the choir performing it. My church has a long-standing tradition in its Christmas Eve service of ending with inviting anyone who wants to up onto the platform to sing it. I understand that it's hard to sing and have it sound good without lots of practice, but that alone doesn't make it worthy of all the hype in my opinion.

Much Ado About Nothing

I'd like to take a few moments to talk about nothing.

Why is it that a Google search for “nothing” returns about 541,000,000 results at the moment? Shouldn't that be zero? I wanted to search for nothing, after all.

But just what exactly is nothing? Think about it. It is absolutely impossible for you to point at something and truthfully say, “That is nothing.” If it exists, it is not nothing; it is something. Ergo, nothing does not exist.

Similarly, if anybody ever says to you, “I know nothing about x,” he has to be lying. Because if he knows that he knows nothing about x, he knows something (the something being that he knows nothing about x) and therefore his statement is false. Well, there is actually one exception to that. Perhaps Nothing is someone's name. But that could get pretty confusing. I can imagine it now. “I've known Nothing since grade six.” “Oh really, so how did you manage to graduate, then?”

But just remember... You know nothing about the horse!

Ping-B-Gone

Hip hip hooray! A new version of iTunes, 10.1, was released today. For me, the most exciting change is the ability to completely disable Ping. What is Ping? According to Apple, “Follow your favourite artists and friends to discover the music they're talking about, listening to, and downloading.” They're billing it as a social network centered around music. I personally had no interest in it when Apple announced it. Primarily because, like I just said, it's social networking. I have no interest in pretty much anything related to social networking.

Netflix Revisited

Yes, I still stand by my previous assessment that Netflix' Canadian selection has, shall we say, plenty of room for improvement. I recently took a look at my Canflix rental history and did a search on Netflix for all the movies I've watched via Canflix. Only about 10% of the movies I've watched over the past year are currently available for streaming on Netflix. But, when trying to see what Netflix had available, I eventually looked at it from a different angle, that of TV shows, rather than movies. And I actually found that they had several TV shows I was interested in watching, that Canflix didn't have. So I took a little closer look and did some more math to see if it was worth it after all for me to give them a try.

“The Box”

Another hilarious Simon's Cat video. Check out more at http://www.youtube.com/user/simonscat. There are also a couple Simon's Cat books available, too. I just got the second one delivered to me this afternoon, and I love it so far.

Things That Don't Make Sense

Traffic control signs where they don't seem to be needed
Every day, I pass by a corner where there is a sign informing people that left turns are not allowed between 9AM and 6PM. Usually, such signs are for the purpose of improving traffic flow during rush hour. But if that's the purpose of this sign, wouldn't it make more sense to have it say something like 3PM to 6PM? Plus, this sign is for people turning onto a major street from a minor one. In no way do these left turners from Livingstone Avenue ever affect Peardonville Road traffic. In fact, I often think the sign should have been turned 90 degrees, because it's the people left turning off of Peardonville there that frequently disrupt traffic since there's no left turn lane, particularly if there happens to be more than one person wanting to turn left.

But the really strange thing is that despite this sign, there still are almost always several vehicles there waiting to turn left. Some people just don't know how to read signs, apparently. Which leads me to my next Thing That Doesn't Make Sense...

How Do I Cook This?

A couple months before my parents moved away, my mom told me that I would get whatever they had in their freezer that they weren't able to use up by the time they moved. I promptly suggested that they go out right away and buy a side of beef.

When the day came, my dad brought up two good sized boxes, each about 1 foot cubed, full of... stuff. I honestly can't tell you what all is in there, as even though it's been over a month I have yet to look inside the boxes to see what I have. I keep forgetting all about it, until I go into my freezer for some ice cream or something, and notice those two boxes of stuff sitting there. But of course I'm always distracted with something else at the time and have forgotten about it again by the time I'm finished my bowl of ice cream.

Do Possums Really Exist?

On my way home from work today, I saw a dead possum on the side of the road. I've seen many dead possums in my lifetime. However, I do not think I've ever seen a single live possum. Not even in a zoo. This makes me question whether they even exist at all. I bet there's just a factory somewhere that manufactures all these realistic looking “dead possums” and people drop them at random points along the road.

Christmas is Right Around the Corner!

I think I've just set a new record for me. It's not even the end of September yet, and this morning I started planning for the Christmas season. Usually, Christmas doesn't even show up on my radar until around mid-December. Sure, I hear other people talking about it and can't escape from it in malls and stores, but the extent of any actual planning I've ever had to do in the past was buying gifts, which rarely happened before the couple weeks leading up to Christmas.

How Not to Launch a New Service

Earlier this week, Netflix launched their Internet streaming based video rental service in Canada. And boy is this one launch they really bungled for a variety of reasons. If you don't already know, Netflix is a wildly popular American “DVD-rental-by-mail” company that has gotten to be very popular, and they also have a service where subscribers can skip the mailing of DVDs and stream the video directly off the internet.

First of all, they launched with a significantly poorer video selection than everyone was expecting. More on that later.

Secondly, they hired paid extras to pose as enthusiastic Netflix fans in downtown Toronto. That didn't go over too well once word got out.

Thirdly, their CEO insulted his fellow Americans during an interview about the Canadian launch. When asked whether their American subscribers would be upset about the Canadian price being lower than the US price, he responded, “How much has it been your experience that Americans follow what happens in the world? It's something we'll monitor, but Americans are somewhat self-absorbed.”

Our Friend Dirt

And now, for the educational portion of our program, a short documentary about dirt.

First Post!

• First post for the month of September.
• First post in over a week.
• First post containing the word "antelope."
• First post written somewhere other than home. Not exactly sure where I am though... somewhere past Kamloops.
• First post written in a moving vehicle. Don't worry, my dad is the one driving right now, not me.
• First post composed completely on my iPhone. Not something I'd like to do regularly, but I found a way to make it a little easier. Type the whole thing, HTML and all, into the Notes app and paste it into the Blogger interface later. I would not recommend trying to type a full post using their blog editor on an iPhone.
• First post written somewhere without Internet or cellular connection of any kind. I won't be able to finish and publish this post until I'm going through Jasper National Park. They have great cell service there, in contrast with the zero coverage everywhere else between there and Kamloops.
• First post written with a cat a few feet away from me. He's the third traveler on this trip. He'll be staying with my brother for a couple weeks during my parents' big move. My young nephew will love that. The cat, however, will be very happy when that time is over, I'm sure.
• First post for which I'm not proofreading as much as normal. Well, if there are any big errors I can always fix then later...

The Insomniac Time Traveler

WARNING: More techy post than usual today. But I guess that definitely makes it count as Something Completely Different, doesn't it?

For the past year or so, I've had an issue with my Mac where it lost the ability to automatically go into sleep mode, in which it uses extremely little power, instead just sitting there idle until I manually put it to sleep. I tried to determine the problem, but eventually I gave up and figured it was an issue where I'd have to reinstall the OS, which I didn't really want to do. When I bought my new iMac, at first it would sleep correctly, then it refused to, just like my old Mac. I worked more intentionally towards solving this issue over the past week, and I eventually narrowed the cause down to my USB hub. If you don't know, it's a small device that turns one port on the computer into several, so you can plug in more devices. If this hub is not plugged in, my iMac will go to sleep when it's supposed to.

Now, on to a second issue. Apple has an integrated backup facility called Time Machine built into its operating system. I have an external hard drive that I bought almost a year ago for the purpose of these Time Machine backups. It has always worked great, but a few days ago it started exhibiting strange behaviour and would not work correctly. I spent a fair amount of time troubleshooting and looking up error messages online. Nothing I tried seemed to help and I was starting to think it may need to be sent to the manufacturer for repairs or replacement. Fortunately it's just a backup drive, and I also have two separate backups, so it wasn't that much of an issue, aside from the inconvenience.

Long story short, I eventually determined these two issues to be indirectly related. As a part of my troubleshooting, I switched this drive to being plugged directly into the iMac (so I could remove the USB hub), rather than one of the ports on my hub. It seems that for some reason the drive doesn't like that. It only works fine when plugged into the hub. I can't say whether this is a new issue or not, as I think this was the first time since I bought it that I didn't have it plugged into the hub.

So, it appears that I can have either operational Time Machine backups but no automatic sleep mode, or an iMac that goes to sleep but can't update the Time Machine backup. Maybe I'll eventually find a solution, but for now I think I'll give it a rest (no pun intended). Unless my math was wrong, it looks like the difference in power usage between it idling and sleeping will only cost about $1.50 per month tops. And there are other benefits to not letting it sleep (which I won't go into at this time), so perhaps those benefits will actually be worth paying the extra $1.50 for. But still, I don't like not knowing why the drive behaves this way (if it is a hardware issue, it's still under warranty) so I'll probably do some more diagnostics and research as time permits.

Surprise Wedding

Surprise! I got married this evening. Okay, not really. But I was involved in a wedding. Well... not so much a wedding, as a wedding rehearsal. And I really wasn't a part of the wedding. I don't even know the people who are getting married. I was just asked if I could to do sound for it. But it was a surprise. And a wedding. That much is true!

I got a phone call about 6:15 PM this evening, as there was a wedding rehearsal going on at my church that was supposed to have started at 6:00 PM and there was no sign of the person who was going to do sound, nor was anyone able to contact him (don't worry, he's okay—he just accidentally mis-scheduled things and was out elsewhere for the evening). In the frantic attempt to find someone else who could do it instead I was called. Since I wasn't doing anything important anyway, I paused the show I was watching and quickly went down to the church to help out. And since I was the one involved in the rehearsal so I know more what's going on, I'm going to be doing the actual wedding as well.

Of Mice and Men

Well, I did it. Thursday afternoon on my way home from work, I bought my new iMac. It was perfect timing for me to consider it to be a birthday present for myself, too. The display is great, it can do things that my old one couldn't, and it has about five to six times the power as well. But do you know what? I think the aspect of it that I've been getting the most enjoyment from is not the computer itself, but the mouse that came with it.

What the heck is a finca, anyway?

I love playing games. Particularly European board games, after being introduced to The Settlers of Catan several years ago by a former co-worker. Settlers was like a gateway drug into a whole new and exciting world of board games, which my whole family has since become immersed in. I've played many different games since then, all of which I've thoroughly enjoyed and most of which I had to go and buy a copy of for myself. Which leads me to Finca.

Attack of the Killer Lasagne

Thinking about my broken coffee press reminded me of the last time I broke one of my dishes, a few years ago. And it was a rather spectacular event too; not one I'd like to repeat. It all began one Sunday afternoon when I decided to make a pan of lasagne...

In Memoriam

2005 - 2010

Today I mourn the passing of my coffee press. It seems that when I washed my dishes last night I wasn't careful enough when I put it or other dishes in the sink. When I grabbed it out of the sink to wash it I found a nice big crack down half of it that wasn't there before. Even though I rarely fill it past the half-way mark anyway as I usually only make enough for one mug (if I want more a few hours later I'm better off making it fresh), I suspect the heat would still make it worse, or perhaps even cause it to shatter.

Oh well. It had a full life. It was a birthday gift, from shortly after my brother got married and moved out, taking the coffee maker with him (for some reason he decided he'd rather live with his wife than me—what a jerk!). That would place it at 5 years old. I guess I won't be able to make myself any coffee for a bit, but at least until I get a replacement I can make do with espresso instead. I don't think that will be tough.

Services will be held this Friday evening at 7 PM at the dumpster outside my building.

11 Haikus About Technology

My iPhone is slow.
The next update had better
Make it fast again!

My old PowerMac.
Should I replace it soon with
A brand new iMac?

Blu-ray discs on sale
But I own the DVD
Maybe I'll upgrade

New CFL bulbs
Last for a very long time
Use less power too

Air conditioning
Is nice to have in summer
When it is hot out

The Evernote app
Crashed my iPhone twice so far
And made it reboot

My television
Much thinner than my old one
LCD screens rock

My PlayStation 2
Is very old but still works
Great for classic games

My hard drives are full
With so many TV shows
That I have to watch

Refrigerators
Keep perishable foods cold
So they don't go bad

All the flying cars
Like they showed on The Jetsons
When will they arrive?

From Sweden to My Patio

I'm not all that much of a shopping person. I'll enter a store with an idea of what I'm looking for, pick something out, and buy it (assuming they have what I want at a price I'm willing to pay, that is). Or I'll wander up and down the aisles in the grocery store looking for sales or anything else that catches my eye. Even places that sell electronics or movies I usually only spend a relatively short amount of time in. But for some reason, I really like shopping at Ikea.

To Buy or Not to Buy—That is the Question

I can be so indecisive at times. I could list many situations where my own thoughts on what to do and/or how to proceed have bounced back and forth so many times it almost made me dizzy. One good example is what to do since my Mac is getting on in years.

Forgotten Gems

I have a fair sized music library. According to iTunes it's currently 7,771 tracks, spanning 678 albums and 302 artists. And while that collection has been built over the past 16 or 17 years, almost half of that is stuff I've purchased in the past 5 years. My music library started growing faster when the iTunes Music Store (since renamed to simply the iTunes Store, since they now have video and apps as well) opened in Canada since it was in most cases a lot cheaper than buying the physical CD (which would have just ended up in a box in my closet anyway after loading it into iTunes), and it really took off once I discovered the web sites eMusic and Amie Street. But what of the music from the previous dozen years?

A Plain Vanilla Post

Vanilla is a curious thing. I recently read that vanilla is the second most expensive spice, after saffron, since it's such a labour intensive process to grow the pods. And yet, vanilla has become such a common and sought after flavour. So much so, that lots of people seem to equate “vanilla” with “plain.”

Yes, it doesn't get any
fruitier than vanilla, does it?

So did I, for about the first two thirds of my life. Then at some point in my early twenties it clicked that vanilla by itself was a perfectly viable flavour, rather than the absence of a flavour like I previously considered it to be. And suddenly I had a greater appreciation for things like vanilla milkshakes, vanilla ice cream, and vanilla yogurt.

It's interesting how extremely versatile vanilla is, which I guess is why it's so widely used, despite its cost. Aside from it being a great stand-alone flavour, it complements so many other things well. Making chocolate chip cookies? The recipe includes vanilla. Want an ice cream sundae? Yep, start with vanilla ice cream and add your toppings. Order pie a-la-mode and you're never asked what flavour ice cream you want—you always get vanilla. And the one that still amazes me is Starbucks' Caramel Macchiato. Yes, the primary flavouring in that is vanilla syrup. The only caramel in it is what they drizzle on the top!

All this talk of vanilla has suddenly got me craving a vanilla latte... I don't have any vanilla syrup, but I found a very simple recipe I think I'll try. What better way to start out a lazy Saturday morning than with a nice hot vanilla latte.

Pizza: Nature's Perfect Food

This probably won't come as a surprise with me being a typical single male in North America, but one of my staple foods happens to be pizza. I rarely have pizzaria pizza though, primarily because of the cost, but also because it's really not all that healthy a thing to eat on a regular basis (but they sure do taste good!). Usually, I'll swing by the grocery store on my way home from work and pick up a nice, inexpensive, fresh deli pizza. Although occasionally, I'll have a frozen pizza. Last night, however, I decided I'd try something different and make one myself.

Happy Birthday, Mac!

Today is officially the sixth birthday of my Apple PowerMac G5. On July 18, 2004, I took the plunge and drove down to London Drugs to buy it. And to this day, it is still in active service. When I bought it I owned two other PCs but over the years they got decommissioned and I stayed with just my Mac.

And you know what, despite its age it still runs great. It manages my media libraries and feeds my iPod, iPhone, and Apple TV. It checks email and web sites. It even can encode video. Maybe there's no way it can run the latest graphically intensive games. And there's no way I can ever upgrade the OS any further than OS X 10.5 (AKA Leopard) since it's no longer supported. But it does everything I need it to and that's the important thing.

Occasionally I contemplate buying a new Mac, and whether the extra features and abilities justify the expense. Yes, video encoding would be over four times the speed. But whether it takes four days or less than one to take transcode those TV season DVDs I just bought really doesn't matter since I won't be watching the show that fast anyway. Yes, all the iMacs have built-in cameras. But I think video chats are just a novelty anyway. And yes, I would have a computer capable of running Sims 3, probably the only computer game I would really like to play (all other games I want to play are on video game consoles).

But is it really worth spending $1,500 or so on a new iMac just for that? As much as I like having new "toys" to play around with I think it probably isn't. There's nothing wrong with it, and maybe it'll end up being another few years before it gets replaced. Or maybe Apple will release a new Mac in the fall that's so amazing that I won't be able to resist the urge to buy one. You never know...

This Is A Post

This is my post for today.
I don't know what to write,
But I'll write something anyway
And publish it tonight.

Maybe I'll write about a cat
That walked across the street,
Or that kid who was a brat
And stomped hard on my feet.

But no, that would be kinda lame
So what's a better topic?
To simply write without an aim
Would just be too myopic.

Write some haikus about food?
No, I've done that before.
I'm not really in the mood;
Today writing's a chore.

It's been two days since my last post
So I should post something.
Perhaps if I made some toast
Ideas, it would bring.

But no, that didn't seem to work.
My thoughts refuse to flow.
Sorry, not trying to be a jerk;
Come back instead tomorrow.

The Case of the Leaky Travel Mug, Part 2

I wrote previously about a travel mug I have that suddenly had a mysterious leak. Well, I am here to say that the mystery has been solved. And you know what, it wasn't terrorists after all. Or robot ninjas. Or terrorist robots. Someone else had the same experience and shared his findings with me, and I decided to test them out myself.

The Old Lawn Chairs

I usually spend most of my lunch break sitting in the windowsill of the lunch room at work. As such, most people probably believe I am part cat. On the contrary, I believe I am actually part rodent—packrat to be precise. Maybe not anywhere near as bad as those people you might see on reality TV shows, but I still have trouble throwing away something that might have some value in the future or could be repairable. Or in some cases I know it has no value, but I just never get around to throwing it out.

Techno Chicken

A dancing chicken.  What more could you want?

Don't judge a book by it's cover. Or sell it without one.

Last weekend I bought a bunch of books. One of them said it was a 30th Anniversary edition, so I decided to check the copyright page to see when it originally came out. At the bottom of that page, there was the following text:

If you purchased this book without a cover you should be aware that this book may have been stolen property and reported as "unsold and destroyed" to the publisher. In such case neither the author nor the publisher has received any payment for this "stripped book."

I thought that was a bit odd, that it would be assumed that a missing cover was a sure sign that it was stolen. After all, it's not like if someone broke into my apartment and stole some books they'd be ripping the cover off them, right? And how would they know the publisher wasn't paid?

A later Google search informed me that "A 'stripped book' is a mass market paperback that has been stripped of its cover in order to be pulped and recycled as a result of lack of sales. The covers are returned to the publisher as evidence that the books have been destroyed and the books are discarded or recycled into paper or cardboard products."¹ Ah, that makes more sense.

I checked other books I have, and some actually go as far as to say that it is illegal to sell the book without a cover. Others say you're not allowed to sell or even lend the book to anyone with anything other than the cover it was published in. But that still left me with the question, who would actually want to buy a book without its cover? I know I wouldn't.

¹http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stripped_book

The Perfect Iced Tea

As previously noted, summer is a great time for cold drinks. As such, I decided I'd share the special iced tea making technique passed down the Hildebrandt line for generations. Well not really, I just stumbled across this sometime last summer and now I'll only use the powdered iced tea mixes if I have to.

Anyway, as every good recipe always starts with the ingredients, here are the ingredients in iced tea:

• Ice
• Tea

Hamburger

I want a burger. Yes, that would be great.
That is the food I've been craving of late.
I get out a bun and I get out the meat,
Then get all the condiments. Set them out neat.

Raw would be gross so I turn on my grill.
Finally it's hot but it's 7 minutes still
That I must wait 'til the patty is done,
So while I wait I put stuff on the bun.

Finally I hear the awaited "ding!"
So I hurry to get the meat out of that thing
And onto my bun which is ready to go.
I look at my plate and what do you know?

Now I have a hamburger. It is quite good.
It's loaded with meat like all hamburgers should.
Some relish, some mayo, a big slice of cheese,
And even some ketchup—whatever I please!

Summer

     Summer has arrived, bringing

     Hot days and cold drinks,
     Walks at the park,
     Days at the lake.

     Hamburgers and Popsicles,
     Eating fresh peaches,
     Sunlight until late.

     Hiking and camping,
     Picnics with family,
     Reading books under a tree.

     Melted ice cream and sunburns,
     Too many mosquitos,
     Neighbors partying too loud.

     Pools too busy and so are all the parks,
     Too hot to go outside,
     Felt sick after the roller coaster.

     Air conditioner's noisy and costs lots to run,
     Kids getting too bored,
     Almost got heatstroke again.

     How much longer until Autumn?

American Woman

Sorry, I couldn't resist posting this video today...

The Case of the Leaky Coffee Mug

I have a travel mug I use on occasion, which was given to me a couple years ago. It's nothing fancy, but it does the job. For me, at least. Others who have the same travel mug have complained in the past about it leaking, but it never did that for me. Until yesterday morning, that is.

I noticed that the place I set it down had a wet circle, and the bottom of the mug did indeed feel damp. After finishing off the remaining coffee and letting the mug sit for a little bit it felt dry again. Then I refilled it, and as soon as I picked it up the bottom felt wet again.

Happy 1st of July!

I bet you thought that title looked odd. Well it does to me, too. How many Canadians do you ever hear talking about the 1st of July? Aside from people referring to the specific calendar date, of course. We all talk about our nation's birthday as Canada Day.

Yet for some reason, I rarely hear Americans talk about the Independence Day holiday. They talk about the 4th of July. Stores have 4th of July Long Weekend Sales. Out-of-office email notifications say they're away celebrating the 4th of July. Cities advertise their 4th of July festivities. Even the Wikipedia page starts with, "Independence Day, commonly known as the Fourth of July..."

But why that is, I can't say. It just strikes me as odd, since in general I've observed Americans to be very patriotic people. I would have expected them to be proudly stating that this is the day they gained their independence. So why wouldn't they always refer to their nation's birthday as Independence Day?

1:00PM - 2:00PM

I recently started watching the show 24. The series just recently ended after airing for eight years, but I had never watched it until just a few weeks ago. I've been renting the discs as part of my Canflix subscription and watching an episode every couple nights or so. But I am not writing about the show, but its episode titles.

11 Haikus About Food

Yellow banana
I will eat one this morning
Just like yesterday

All Good Things Must Come to an End

It was sometime in 2003 when I learned that Starbucks was having their own branded Visa card, complete with great rewards. Unfortunately, it was only available in the US at the time which was quite disappointing. So in early 2005 when I discovered that it was finally available in Canada, I signed up immediately. And at the very beginning of March 2005, I received my brand new Starbucks Duetto Visa card. So new, this program was, that my card number had five consecutive zeros.