Phendrana Drifts

It is well-reported, and often I don't simply repeat stuff like this, but it struck a chord with me today.

"Finding" versus "Looting"

You can't deny it is quite compelling. An interesting note on a horrible tragedy in the United States. I wish it was better down there - I certainly was glad and thankful on Tuesday when it appeared that it wouldn't be so bad, especially in New Orleans. But as it turns out, it is a horrible natural disaster. I hope that everything possible is done to save those who can be saved and to alleivate the misery and sorrow of those who have lost family members and friends, as well as homes.

The great experiment in cable is now over. Television is a failure, I'm going back to DVD's and goofing off.

It is gorgeous outside.

Finally, it is the weekend.

In yesterday's Edmonton Journal, as well as other CanWest newspapers, there was an article titled Professor has answer to high oil prices, that answer being nationalizing Canada's petroleum industry. Beyond the fact that that would be a dumb idea, two other things caught my attention:

Dr. Leo-Paul Lauzon has been touted by the NDP as a potential candidate in the Montreal riding of Outremont.
Asked about backlash in Alberta to oil nationalization, Lauzon said: "I don't give a damn about what Albertans think."

Unrelated tidbits? Either way, that is pretty harsh language about one part of the country coming from a potential politician.

I'm testing the new Google instant messaging program, Google Talk. Since I have no contacts yet, I have nothing to report. If you want to add me, my Google e-mail address is phendrana@gmail.com. And no, I don't use the address regularly, so you may not get a reply if you e-mail me there.

The answer to the question is sadly no.

I am happy today - know why? Well I have the best wife in the whole wide world. Well, if you paid any attention, you would already know I think that, but now I have proof.

A sample of the miniatures.

A nightsister sith witch versus Quinlan Vos (if you don't know who they are, trust me, don't ask).

Staring down an AT-ST.

The rancor!

So I now have 24 of 60 of the first set, 31 of 60 of the second set, 41 of 60 of the third set and 34 of the most recent set, which was released on Friday. And more coming via eBay. All told, I have 225 Star Wars miniatures.

Happy birthday to you!
Happy birthday to you!
Happy birthday dear Quynn!
Happy birthday to you!

Nope, the American office isn't that good. Same jokes, almost the same script, but definitely missing something.

My home phone is not working very well, and it is right angering me. We only have one phone jack in our home, and we used to have a cordless phone. I say used to, because we accidentally dropped it in the water. It happened at a poor time cashflow wise, so we opted to get a cheap $10 phone until payday. Since then the phone rings three or four times a day and no one is on the other end. Of course, maybe someone is and we can't hear it. Sigh. We bought a new phone today, which is charging as I write, so hopefully it will stop when said new phone is up and running. I would likely feel more indifferent if it weren't that I was expecting a certain phone call.

Does anyone know if the American version of "The Office" is any good? There is two hours of it on tonight, including the pilot.

New Zelda won't see Twilight until 2006

I don't think Nintendo is trying to lose me as a loyal customer, but this is not making me a happy camper. Outside of Resident Evil 4, I can't see a decent new reason to own a GameCube since Metroid Prime 2. And the lack of good and enticing news on the new console is not making me feel warm and fuzzy either. I didn't buy a DS. Where once Nintendo likely took around $700 a year of my net income, this year, 2005, they have taken $0. $0! My video game playing in general has decreased, but this is not me, it is Nintendo. Zelda was to be the renewal, affirmation I made a good choice in the console wars (I picked them all of course, but GameCube was first).

Many other fanboys and fangirls have waxed poetic on what is wrong with Nintendo and their strategies, but I think I might have to start voicing those thoughts in my head. Especially if PSP takes the Game Boy brand down a notch. It would just be another voice in the mix. Still, a late Zelda combined with drastically declining third party support spells bad news for the big N.

Much to the disgust of some, I am largely indifferent to the hub bub (is that how that is spelled?) surrounding the possibly separatist tendencies of the Governor General designate and/or her husband. Not that I don't find it very interesting, because I very much do. And I do think this represents another failure of the Prime Minister's Office. I can't imagine this was the rollout they had in mind.

But to be perfectly honest, I don't care too much about the political mindset or views of a Governor General. I don't want them to be a fascist of course. But really, being a separatist is not a horrid viewpoint. And separatists, by in large, don't believe that Canada is bad or evil, rather that Quebec should not be a part of it. Well, I suppose they would attack the formation of Canada (and reaffirmation that occurred in 1982) and while I would call that the very underpinning of Canada, I respect those that disagree.

Some would suggest I am blinded by our Governor General's smile (which I think code for something) and perhaps I am. She certainly would not have been my first choice - a couple of blogs I frequent suggested Bill Shatner and Brett Hart, which both work with me - but to be honest, the first time I heard of Micha�lle Jean was when she was appointed to the post of Governor General. I'm not really a CBC kind of guy by in large, I'm not really a TV or radio guy in general. But all the same, while I might not have aimed for a separatist, I can think of worse things. Being a separatist isn't illegal. It isn't immoral. Rational people believe in it, for rational reasons. And that all said, there is nothing that suggests Jean is a separatist today. Originally, when I thought of this blog in my head yesterday, I was going to say there is no proof she or her husband were ever separatists. Yeah well, that train seems to have the left the station.

Still, I am analyzing this for what it is, not a horrible choice in Governor General per se, but another screw up by the PMO. Why can't Martin's people do anything right? Bizarre.

Allie has started a meme, and has suggested in the strongest possible terms that I should do it has well. Well, here goes:

15 things I've done you probably haven't

I was married to Allie by Murray Smith (I couldn't resist, even though Allie posted it too).
I finished the first Knights of the Old Republic in just 30 hours. Not 30 hours of playtime, but 30 hours after I hit start.
I have drank the tinest amount of Mr. Clean. Don't do it. Trust me.
I have danced with Natalie Portman.
I didn't drink alcohol until I turned 18 but quickly made up for lost time.
I have won a trip to Disneyland.
I have gone on Pirates of the Carribbean with Ralph Klein (He was only mayor at the time, but Colleen was there too).
I went all the way to age 24 before getting an IV.
I have never worked in fast food or sales.
I did Model United Nations in university, well enough to win a couple of awards.
I have an unhealthy obsession with Star Wars (to be fair, likely a couple of people reading this are in the same boat).
I met the dog who played Eddie on Fraiser in an airport, and pet him.
I have been elected.
I have been divorced.
Preston Manning once called me. Not by accident.

I read (on-line) the special on the War in the Pacific as we approach the 60th Anniversary in the Globe and Mail, and through a series of web surfing events I found out that past Premier of Ontario John Robarts is quite the interesting guy. For example:

He was born in Banff.
He served as an officer on the HMCS Uganda, a Canadian ship that served in the Pacific (along with other theatres). What makes that interesting is that the Uganda's crew was asked to vote by the Canadian government to "volunteer" to fight in the war against Japan after V-E day. They voted to go home.
He became Premier of Ontario in 1961, where he sounds like my kind of Conservative. Libertarian, but still able to find time and foresight to create York University (he was very big on education). And promote bilingualism. Good man.
He committed suicide after a tremendous decline in his health in 1981.

All very interesting tidbits.

Once again, we play the waiting game...

Trailer Crashers

Why I sometimes am not wild about my picture being taken... still got to go see the movie.

Here are the results of the walk, well the picture part at the very least:

A grave for a mouse found in our yard.

Some saddles on the ground, a neighbour obviously prepping for a ride.

Beautiful Allie in the beautiful sun.

Whitemud Drive from the bridge.

Swinging Allie, but not in that way.

A tree.

Some things are more exciting than they seemed at the outset. Still, this turnaround makes my stomach turn, two weeks, and then likely another two weeks.

I feel restless tonight. I am thinking about going for a walk, maybe even bring the camera.

I swore (to myself, and not the offensive kind, the more sincere kind) that I would blog this weekend. But sadly, I missed. I can't say why either, because it was kind of a big weekend - my Dad returned from Vietnam with fantastic news, I made a big decision on a big problem (not the kind I can tell the world though I'm afraid) and Allie continues to look fantastic.

I've been playing Wes' new Xbox game, Forza Motorsport, when I find time. It is a fantastic racing game, likely the best I've played. I miss the art direction and overall feel of the NFS: Underground games, but Forza's technical specs are just too high to be ignored.

Allie is putting on stuff to go to work, which means I likely should be doing that too. So I'll try and think of something to write later.

And I still miss you Chris. Again, it is too bad we didn't get to know eachother better.

Those of you who have a cat - is your cat ever wet for no apparent reason? My cat just walked on my feet and her belly was wet. Weird. She wasn't outside, our bathtub is empty, and I don't think there is random water anywhere. Maybe her or the dog's water dish, but I somehow don't think so. But it is the best explaination, so let's go with it.

On another line of thought, I think my blog posts are becoming less deep, less informative and less substantive. I am now jealous of my friends' blogs. No one else seems to write about their cat or the smallest computer development. And those who do tend to write well. Hmm... maybe I should take a step back and think of a way to write more interestingly.

Because Brett seems so desperate, despite seeing me in the morning to go over some of his copy, here are some screenshots of my widgets:

and hit F8 and

What happened? Why is this a big deal? What is a widget? Well, in reverse order, a widget is a small application that runs, usually constantly, on your desktop. Look at the first pic - do you see the tiny sun in the lower right corner? Or the yellow square that looks like a post-it note? Well, those are widgets, and they are always there. Usually things like that - the weather, or an RSS reader, a system monitor, or a calendar. Second question - well widgets are what made me most jealous of Apple's newest operating system, Tiger. There is other neat stuff in Tiger, so I'm not dissing it, but man was I jealous of Brett's dashboard (how widgets made it into mainstream Mac life). But there was a predecessor to dashboard, called Konfabulator. It cost cash, and was meant for Macs in the first place. It caught the attention of Mac, but apparently also caught the attention of Yahoo. And Yahoo bought it, made it free, and made certain it could run on PC's. Go to Yahoo! Widgets (formerly known as Konfabulator) and check it out. Over 600 widgets for the Windows platform. And I'm sure some for Apple. But also a bright future.

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