JP Fiset Meet Update

Today I swam 50 free, 50 fly, and 50 back.

50 free - My dive was good and I didn't breathe until several strokes after the turn. My finish could have been stronger, and I could have reached for the wall better.

50 fly - Good dive. Didn't breath until just before the turn and then I went to breathing every other stroke. I had a better finish than in free. After the race I didn't really feel tired and my heart rate and breathing hadn't increased very much.

50 back - I had a great start and streamline. I evenly split my time and beat everyone. I had an excellent finish and really reached for the wall.

Kudos to me.

My Wedding

Today in CALM class I had to get married. Postle wanted us to think about being married and all sorts of other touchy feely crap. He also wanted to know everyone's "dream wedding".

While most people were all "I'm gonna get COOTIES!!!", I married this girl in front of me who makes me laugh and we got straight to work on the questions (although we finished last). When we got to things like "Who should initiate sex?" my plan was to flip a coin. That seems equitable to me.

City Champions!

Today was the city champs swim meet. The JP swim team won first place in the small squad division. We got a sweet trophy. w00t.

I was still sick today, but there was no way I was going to miss this.

In grade 10 we won first in small squad, but for grade 11 we had just over the small squad limit and had to compete with medium squad teams. We were only able to get second place. This year we had less people and were able to go back to win small squad.

In the 50m back, I beat everyone and I think I'll get a medal or something. I was racing with three guys from my club who haven't been off sick.

Next year the swim team will be in serious trouble. The team is made up almost entirely of grade 12s. There are only two grade 10s and one grade 11. Good luck next year Bill!

Sick Day #2

No post today. I'm still sick.

Go Away.

Sick Day #1

My throat is sore and my head is literally full of snot.

Go Away.

Wrapping Up Loose Ends

There are a few things I feel I need to wrap up from the last few posts. The first is the reason I was driving around with a backseat driver. My Mom's friend Laurie recommended the movie "Shopgirl" which, as far as I know, bypassed it's way straight to cheap theatres. It's the story about a boring girl's relationships. A total chick flick. Lauie couldn't believe my Mom dragged me to it. It was complete crap.

The next item is my Grad Writing. A few days ago I posted how displeased I was with my first stab at it, so on friday after my glorious victory (read back if you're lost) I went and revised my comments. After contemplating just writing 250 exclaimation marks I decided on this;

Shoot for the moon. If you miss you'll have all eternity to think about your mistake. I'd like to thank the little people for my success (anyone under 6'). Truthfully, I'm not going to miss any of you. So long and thanks for all the fish. IT'S OVER!!

That's exactly 250 characters and completely badass. The only problem is that it is slightly disjointed...

Backseat Driver

The most hilarious thing just happened. I was making a left turn from 119th Street onto the Whitemud. To get onto the Whitemud (westbound) I had to go through an intersection, over an overpass, and turn left at the second intersection.

The funny part was when my mom went hysterical with some typical backseat driving. We were approaching the first intersection (with a "no left turns" sign) and she started yelling that I was missing my turn. She had such conviction and was so loud about it that it was all I could do to keep the car on the road. Somehow I ignored her and made my way to the second intersection. I then stopped to yield to oncoming trafic before making a legal left turn onto the Whitemud. All the while she never ceased her rant.

I told her that if she was going to backseat drive that I expect her to at least pay attention. When she starts screaming directions at me it only serves as a distraction and negatively effects my driving and reasoning. I also told her that for her own safty (not to mention mine) that she should invest in a blindfold.

Later she made the rediculous claim that I had been going too fast "for her comfort". I responded and told her that I was in fact going too fast to make the illegal left turn but that I had been going the speed limit and had even stopped for the correct turn (to allow oncoming trafic to pass). Her next excuse was that she conveniently had a headache.

This isn't the only time she has done something like this. I was making a left turn when she yelled not to go. The car was already moving and I knew that I had plenty of time, but her yelling made me hesitate. I made the turn normally (still having plenty of time) but that could easily have not been the case. I even have my aunt as a witness. She told my mom that her backseat driving is dangerous, but this was casually ignored.

First Place? Heck Yes!

Every year since grade 10 I've competed in the Skills Canada Cardboard Boar Race. My school usually has 2 or 3 teams of four. The team I'm on always uses a design in which we build two boats and connect them. This design has served us well. In grade 10 we were in second place overall. Last year we ran into some technical problems and slipped to 6th place. This year we were all veteran boat engineers and built the boat with plenty of time to spare. The quality also was greatly improved as was our strategy.

We crossed the pool in 25.5 seconds for the speed competition, and held all four group members (660 pounds) for the required 2 minutes in the weight competition. Previously we had only attempted to put 2 people in the boat for the weight competition.

Many factors came together very well this year. If you'll excuse me, Andrea, Steph, Mike and I now have some bragging to do.

Let us celebrate our victory with the adding of chocolate to milk.

Grad Writing

I did the writing for the yearbook today. That was really tough. You can never think of anything good to say when you're faced with a blank page and a 250 character limit. Regardless, I churned out some words which I am not entirely happy with.

Below is a complete transcript of what I wrote:
"Shoot for the moon. If you miss, you'll have all eternity to think about your mistake." Thanks to all the little people. That means anyone under 6 feet. I'll miss high school. It's been fun.

How lame was that? Even I was bored while typing it. The first quote isn't bad, but then it takes a real dive. By the end it is cheesy and sentimental.

I resolve to replace the end with "Truthfully, I'm not going to miss any of you." or something equally harsh.

Sexual Assault

My CALM class had a pair of guest speakers from the U of A in to talk about Sexual Assault. The class was wildly hilarious primarily due to my comments. I'll give you an example. At one point they asked (in a very serious way) how you could put pressure on someone to do something they don't want to do, to which I responded with "Do it or I will DESTROY you!". Tone of voice was key.

There was another guy who made a good comment. They asked how you could prevent rape. He said to yell "I have AIDS!!" to scare them off. Then he kinda acted it out. Hilarious.

Sick Day #2

No post today. I'm sick.

Go away.

Grad Photos

Last night I got my grad photos taken. Some people went for the full deal and got all manner of pictures taken in various poses and clothing. I just got the bare bones package which consists of two polaroids for the yearbook (they'll pick the one that looks worse of course).

Where some people have paid $20 for this (not including the photo packages you can buy - the cheapest being $184), I got away paying a grand total of $5.

Let me see. 184 + 20 - 5 = 199. These fools have wasted their own time and $199 for pictures they won't like and won't look at ever again.

Something tells me I was the saavy consumer.

Harry Potter

I saw the new Harry Potter last night (giving Kassia a ride yet again). It wasn't bad. There was some action, adventure, and Hermione running around in a dress. From what I remember, the movie was extremely faithful to the book.

The books are well written (if a bit long) and are moderately enjoyable. Still, I enjoy the movies more. There is less work and it takes less time. If it were available in podcast form, I would be set.

Claire's Blog

My cousin now has a Blog. I'm not sure if she just decided to do one or if my blog was motivation, but she's out there. So far there isn't much to see, but I'm sure that will change.

I've already posted comments on her site. My first comment was "Dumbledore dies of page 596. I just saved you 4 hours and $30." on a post about Harry Potter. I wonder how she'll react to that.

Kassia's Car

She still hasn't driven me to and fro. What is going on?? The same day I got my license I drove around and had four girls in my car! This is rediculous!

In her defense, she has bonitis. How hard on her can I be?

Kassia... GDL'd

Yes, Kassia has her license. She hasn't driven me anywhere yet (she's afraid a random gust will come up from somewhere in the vechile and blow her hair into her eyes), but she's supposed to organize a joyride for sometime soon.

Being spoiled, she already has a car for no reason. On the other hand, certain people who swim day and night and need a car for the obvious transportation required still are minus one vechile. Not that I'm jealous...

Security Now! (Podcast)

Another featured podcast for you. This one is done by the host of This Week In Tech (TWiT) - Leo Laporte, and Security Guru - Steve Gibson. Every week they do a show giving many ways to secure your PC and protect yourself and your data.

They have talked about everything from the Sony/BMG Rootkit to securing Wi-Fi networks. In the shows Steve tends to rant a little about how everything works while Leo translates it back to english. If your system isn't secure or even if you THINK it is, you should listen to this podcast once a week.

Guess My Friends - 1st Edition

I'm going to make a one line description of each of my best friends. If you know who I'm talking about in each sentence then send me an email. There might be a prize.

1. ________ has crappy interests.

2. ________ played soccer practically every recess in elementry.

3. ________ has strong art skills.

4. ________'s neibors like to run around in bikinis.

5. ________ hasn't really had alcohol.

Sleep In Day

I hereby proclaim this International Sleep-In Day. There was no waking me up this morning. When I did get up it was part of the way into second period. I showed up for the last 10 minutes of that class. That is my favorite part of class anyway so it all worked out.

After swimming we were doing dryland and watching a fat old woman diving. She was on the 1 meter board and eventually worked her way into doing pikes. It was hilarious and we were saying things like "that's a whole bunch of old woman changing direction midair". She would dive (making a huge mushroom cloud like splash) and we would all laugh. If we're all going to hell, we might as well have some fun along the way.

Too Many Podcasts!!!

My iTunes podcast folder has 48 podcasts and about 500 unplayed shows building up. I am swamped. Yesterday and today have been sorting and deleting podcasts I don't like enough. There are several shows I have featured on this blog that I really like, and then a whole bunch I may not even have gotten to yet. I am having a really tough time weeding out shows without listening extensively first.

Regardless of anything, I need to clear out some of these shows before they take over my hard drive. Wish me luck.

Top Of The Pods (Podcast)

In this podcast there are two guys from England who do top 10 lists. Each episode is dedicated to a topic such as "Top 10 things to do the day you quit your job" and "Top 10 worst places to use the toilet".

Despite how idiotic this may sound, it is actually quite entertaining. Most of the lists are made by listeners and in such cases the hosts rarely agree 100% with the content. This is where it gets fun. Even if you miss the humor or are an idiot of some sort, it is STILL fun to listen to two British guys talk back and forth and say "Rubbish".

My Spelling

My new goal is to change the spelling of "Better" to "Beter". I think it looks beter that way...

The motivation behind this is to make the english language more streamlined and faster to write. If we took one redundant leter out of every couple of words we could all type faster and get things done more quickly. It would take that much off the work of writing an essay. Every little bit helps.

Taking a single letter out of "beter" yeilds an amazing 17% less writing. Applied on a larger scale we could finish writing before we even start!*Results may vary.

On the other hand, it is equally possible that I am just too lazy to use spell check.

Rememberance Day

I observed my two minutes of silence yesterday, so I'm off the hook for today. This left me the morning for sleeping and the afternoon for vechile shopping.

I'm probably buying a van from my grandpa that he bought from my aunt when she got a brand new Honda Pilot. The thing is that my grandpa took the dash apart trying to improve the design of the parking brake. Most people would just get it fixed, but he is going to install a lever style parking brake from a honda in the middle of the floor in a dodge grand caravan. I'm thinking it's more of a make-work project than anything else.

At swimming I was promised water polo. I didn't get it, so I have to try again for tomorrow.

U of C Recruitment

I went to Il Portico today after evening swim practice. Head Coach Mike Blondal talked about the programs and how everything works. As a fringe benefit I got a fancy meal with lots of pasta and desert.

One thing that really impressed me was how Mike shook my hand and knew my name without having ever been introduced. Wether or not he has just noticed me swimming at a meet or just had Marc point everyone out, it gives the impression that he cares and has taken the time to know my name. Kudos to him.

Also they gave out trinkets to all. Lanyards. If you don't know what that is by the name, it's one of those neaklaces for your keys.

I am 18 in 100 days. Only losers don't count down...

Still Sick

I'm still sick, but I went to school today. I had a horrible headache in the morning and almost threw in the towel, but I just missed school for a swim meet and I can't get too far behind.

By second period I was feeling alright, until I realized it's job shadow day and I didn't talk to the guy I was going to job shadow yet. I would have skipped the class if I had anything beter to do. So I had an uneventful class of watching Dumb & Dumber and playing Squares (good game).

In social I got an essay back (91% w00t). Then I went home and to swimming. I told my coach that I was "out of snot" and was going to swim. He laughed.

He also told me that there is a recruitment dinner at Il Portico (free food kicks SO much ass!) and the U of C wants to keep as many canadian swimmers as possible. That's tomorrow and I'm stoked.

I'm Sick

I was right about that whole "getting sick" thing. I feel awful.

Now I have to go sleep it off.

M.I.A.

I stayed at my cousins' house last night. They all use a bunch of Apple computers. Boo!

My mom was too lazy to drive back to edmonton, so I ended up doing it. I'm really tired from the swimming (surprising because the swim meet wasn't very hectic), the lack of sleep, and now having to drive. In addition to that, I'm starting to feel a bit sick. In retrospect it probably wasn't the best idea to steal food off my cousin's plate when she had a cold...

Speed Meet Update #3

This is the final day of the swim meet. I'll be going home tomorrow.

100m Free - I didn't have a good day today. Lousy sleep last night. Time: 1:00 Best: 57

100m Back - I had to swim next to Taylor Maxey (pure evil). Continuing that crappy swimming streak. Time: 1:05 Best: 59

Relay - I wasn't disqualified (DQ'd) so that was good. My split was 26.5 (and I was wearing a training suit).

The highlight of my day was homemade chili for lunch.

ESKs suck by the way. Beaten by stamps. For shame.

Speed Meet Update #2

I had two races and two good stories about things that happened today. I'll try to keep everything brief.

200m Free - The first thing that happened was that my silicon cap broke as I was pulling it on. A good chunk of the front came away in my hands. Thinking quickly I pulled the back part way off and got the cap into a position to cover as much of my head as possible. Geoff Braid (who is on my team) was in the land beside me and had quite a good laugh. In the race I had a good dive and swam long and strong. My goal in a 200m race is not to go out too fast and die for the end. My time was 2:12 (beating Geoff's 2:16 or whatever). This is 6 seconds slower than my best time (about par for this early in the season).

50m Free - The object of this race is to go as fast as you can for as long as you can. My dive and turn were both good and my time was 26.7. My best time is 25.8 so this was a good race. When I was talking to Marc Tremblay (my coach) after the race he asked me how many times I had breathed. I took one breath on the way out and three more on the way back. He told me to drop that to two on the way back next time. Oxygen Nazi.

One good story from today was the bet I made with these two other guys. I bet them a Milk 2 Go that I would eat an entire mandarin orange (including peel) in one bite. It turns out this is easier said than done. First the orange is too large to get good biting power. Second the peel tastes horrible. After a good long time chewing I got it all down. I'll collect that Milk 2 Go on tuesday.

In finals I had to swim in a 200m medley relay (each person swims a different stroke for 50m). Mark Phillips (another coach) told us the order we were to swim (Steven, Brody, Kier, Derek). We protested that Keir was beter at Free for longcourse (they switched for finals for some reason) and that I was beter at Fly. Mark P just told us to swim it and not to worry. Meanwhile Marc T (head coach) went and switched me to Fly and Kier to Free without telling anyone. Our relay team was disqualified for swimming in the wrong order. Being all optimistic I focused on the fact that I had swam 50m Free in 26.4 seconds (3 tenths faster than the morning).

Speed Meet Update #1

This morning I woke up at the crack of dawn and got on a bus (I'll refer to it as a "tin can on wheels" from now on). This bus was obviously built for and by midgets. I can't astnd up or sit straight (as the chair ahead of me would bisect my legs). Surprisingly enough I was able to twist myself into a position just barely comfortable enough to sleep. The rest and my iPod (now resurected) literally saved me from insanity.

After three hours in the tin can on wheels we got to Lindsay Park. For accuracy's sake I should point out that it is now called Talisman Center but everyone likes Lindsay Park beter. I had to do a warm-up but nothing more because there were only distance events today. After having two Milk 2 Gos I was rehydrated. Then I called my Dad and left.

Tonight I had homemade pizza so I should sleep well. Tomorrow I have 200m and 50m Free. That should allow me to talk more about swimming and less about random crap.

Cascade Speed Meet

This weekend I will be in Calgary swimming insanely fast. This is the first actual (sort of) swim meet of the year and my goal is to get close to my best times.

I actually leave the city tomorrow at 0800 and will be there until late on Sunday. I hope to have computer access to post some times or something. These swim meets have all sorts of crazy stories...

Resume

Another story from CALM class. We had to do some crap with resumes today so instead of actually working to get it done, I just saved a version off my website that I did last year. I still had to do the cover letter, but I had most of the class to play "Squares" (link in title).

It is a very addictive game.

CALM Teacher

Mr. Postle was being a big tool today. I was all dehydrated and everything, but he wouldn't let me get water. As an athlete I have had nutrition information drilled into my head. One of the most important things is water. If you feel thirtsy ever, you're already dehydrated.

This morning I went to swim practice and had a tough set that I must have sweated alot in. We had to do 200m kick sprinting, but doing a dolphin kick patern off each wall. Also there was a time to beat, set by this national level chick who made this set up. Her time was 2:20 or something. People in practice beat her and the best time in our group was 2:12 or something. Meanwhile I slacked off and didn't do the kick pattern at all. So my coach made me do it again. This time I did a 2:08 (beating everyone by a good margin) but I did the kick pattern backwards without realizing it. So the THIRD time I had to do this set I did it all right and had a time of 2:10 or something. But I digress...

This all took large quantities of water and by second period I was really thirsty. I had to wait until lunch at which point I had two Milk 2 Gos and a can of pop in addition to spending a few minutes at a water fountain.

Halloween

Happy Halloween. Celebrate on this, the most sacred of all pegan holidays.

As for me, I have a driving lesson tonight. This is my last driving lesson. In one week they will mail me the certificate that will get me 10% off insurance. I hope not to plow over any unsuspecting kids as they go about their looting.

I'm also very proud of my pumpkin this year. Click the title of this post to see a digital picture.

Thank God For Daylight Savings

I'm still very tired from my LAN Party escapades, and am extremely thankful for the extra hour of sleep the daylight savings time switch affords me. Yesterday night I slept for 14 hours to make up for not sleeping Friday night. It's also a good thing there is no morning swim practice tomorrow.

I'm still really tired.

LAN Party

Last night after swim practice I went over to Andrew's house where him, Brett, Daniel, Tanner, John, and Maikel were having a LAN party of epic proportions.

For those of you unfamiliar with the term "LAN Party" it means that a bunch of nerds and/or losers with nothing to do on a friday/saturday get together, wire up a crude network, play multiplayer games, swap files, stay up all night, and ingest large quantities of caffine laced liquid. LAN stands for Land or Local Area Network and just describes the fact that you are all in one room for a period of 20 hours playing computer games.

The hit of the party was a game called Flatout. This is a racing game in which you get Nitrous Oxide for making the physics engine work (hitting things). There were some pretty spectacular crashes.

F.E.A.R. (a fps or first person shooter) took up Brett and Daniel's time for a bit. Also a big battle was waged in Age of Empires III (rts or real time strategy).

There were also a few movies watched from my ginormous stash of pirated material. At one point my network utilization was at 100% as my computer frantically tried to keep up with the damand for my movies.

Twain Reader (Podcast)

This podcast is like a weekly audio book. The guy reads a chapter of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer once a week and puts it on his website. The great thing about this podcast is that I don't actually have to do any reading.

So basicly I'm reading The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain with no effort or work. It's also much more convenient than a book in that I usually have my iPod with me anyway. I could be on the bus listening to the latest chapter, putting in absolutely no effort, and without the obvious hassles of a big obtrusive book getting in everyone's way.

I was being a bit sarcastic there, but seriously, it's a good podcast. It has earned the Derek Seal of Approval (for those of you who don't know me or how eccentric I can be, this is an actual animal Seal which sits there and flops it's tail occasionally, a high honor indeed).

Second Last Driving Lesson

My Mom found out that adding me to the insurance for her car costs like $800. Isn't that crazy?? And then it costs more for me to have my own vechile (somewhere in the range of $2000).

Once my AMA Driver Training is done, I get a 10% discount though, so that is my goal now.

All those prices are anual by the way.

The Battle with iTunes

It's been 24 hours and I'm still trying to get my iPod loaded with music. It turns out that iTunes was designed neither for nor by humans. Steve Jobs is the Bill Gates of the Apple world.

iTunes has been importing 2 copies of songs into the music library. Also it takes forever to do anything. Then it frequently unsubscribes from podcasts. In fact it's whole handling of podcasts in haphazard.

Update: I FINALLY got everything back on my iPod although now the ID3 tags that iTunes uses to identify songs are all wrong. It will take considerable time for me to fix everything, but at least I have music again.

iPod Resurected

Although it came in the mail yesterday and my mom just hid it until today, it is still exciting to get my iPod back from Apple. The good part about this is that it works now.

Now I have to wrestle with iTunes (crappiest program ever) to get some music on it.

Sick Today

I woke up feeling awful today. If you remember, my social teacher has a test for today which I missed.

It looks like the "extreme sexual exhaustion" excuse may make it's debut.

If you don't know what the deuce I'm talking about, read last friday's post.

Windows XP Reinstallation

So I've finally got my hard drives sorted out and I will be reinstalling windows today. This may take all day factoring in the installation of all the software I want to reinstall.

This weekend is crappy at best.

Club Champs

Today I woke up at the crack of dawn to go swim in a dorky little swim meet my club has every year. I have trouble waking up early to swim a 2.5k warmup and then two 50m races. So in an attempt to make my early morning more justified, I'm going to glamorize both races.

50 meter back - I was racing some fast guys includeing Richard Elkington (my main competition in backstroke). We both had a good race, but I beat him. I'm practically an olympic gold medalist.

50 meter free - I had an excellent dive at the beginning. In fact, this was probably the most powerful and technical dive I have ever done. After that the race was fine. I beat everyone except this kid on the outside who out touched me (in layman's terms that means we were side by side and he had a better finish than me).

Back to bed for me...

Remarks Made to a Social Teacher

I was in social today and my teacher said near the end of class that there will be a test on monday. She stressed that if you miss the test, you have to have a parent phone in an excuse for you so she knows you didn't just skip the class. Then you have to write the test the next day.

The excuse part caught me and I started thinking about what would constitute a valid excuse. So just before the bell rang I asked her "what about extreme sexual exhaustion?" as casualy as I could. Her response was to just stare at me with her mouth open, shocked that I had asked that.

It gets better. On the way out of class I said "I guess I can write with my other hand..." still on the same subject. Her facial expression was priceless.

This Week In Tech (TWIT)

Some time back I said I would be doing a few posts on some of the podcasts I listen to. Nothing important happened today, so here's Derek's podcast review: edition 2.

TWIT is a podcast that I have listened to for some time now. It is a round-table discussion about tech news hosted by Leo Laporte. Every week they talk about the latest product, company or any tech news they hear about. A few recurring topics have come up including spam (John C Dvorak get's no spam!) and the methods of hosting the show (via Skype until it was determined it would be easier and better quality to do a live show).

This show appeals to my most geeky side, and I find it very interesting. I also get the humor in the show, most of which are in-jokes from previous episodes.

There is an audio and a video version available, and so you could watch the show on a new video iPod.

Doom Review

This movie gets no thumbs up. It was complete crap. For less money than a ticket I could just download a copy of Doom 3 and play that.

The movie had no plot. They tried to infuse it with a Resident Evil type plot but it didn't take. The last 20 minutes of the movie when it switches to first person were absolutely pointless. The last few scenes were alright, but only for their action.

Since I won the tickets I don't feel too bad (although those were two perfectly good hours I will never get back). If I had actually paid money to see it, I would feel super gyped.

Doom (Continued)

I went to pick up the tickets today. I though things were going well. Turns out they weren't.

My mom now says that I can't use her car. After making one of her "deals" with me in which I do something so she'll let me use her car, she flatly informs me that I can't use it. This totally destroys my plans.

Also Kassia says she has to work. So now I'm out of a ride and a person to go with. It will be a miracle if I go at all.

Doom

Today I got an email from Dose informing me that I have won two tickets to an advance screening of Doom this wednesday. This is the first thing I have won in a LONG time.

For those who aren't Canadian or just don't live in the few select cities, Dose is a free daily newspaper targeted to youth or those who thing they are still hip (although they're 40). This includes my mom for some reason.

I'm using one ticket, but the other is up for grabs. Anyone I know who wants to come is welcome, but you may have to battle to the death for the seat.

As of now, the people who have expressed some interest in going are Erin and Kassia. Although Erin just asked "Is it scary?" and left it at that. Eden says it's a stupid movie. Miriam doesn't want to go as she is too busy cutting her wrists. Kathleen is MIA.

The only person who actually wants to go is Kassia. On the other hand she was all like: "YESS I'D LOVE TO GO!!!! ...what's doom?" so this might be taken into account.

Car Update

My Dad is getting me a vechile, but has been stalling. I phoned him tonight and we decided that I might be buying my Grandpa's Grand Caravan.

We're aiming for the end of the month.

Happy Birthday

Paolo... SURPRISE!!

I'm sorry I missed your party man. These Cr4Zy planners kept switching it on me. I lay the blame squarely on them.

Anyway enjoy this year. It should be very memorable.

Also, I hope you achieve your grade 12 goal. For that matter, I hope I achieve your grade 12 goal.

Here's to us.

The Longest Day

This morning I woke up at 0430 and drove to swim practice. After two hours of that, I drove to school.

Somewhere through first period, all the C.A.L.M. students were called down for a field trip that consisted of walking through NAIT and the U of A. A whole day of walking.

To add insult to injury, NAIT didn't provide the lunch they had in past years, and my teacher got me all excited for. It was going to be the highlight of my day.

When I got back to school I had to wait until 1600 for the busses to take the school swim team to a competition. The meet was organized poorly with people taking times manually. Also the races were done in rapid sucession, leaving me very tired.

After I got home (bus back to school, car home) I phoned people to finalize plans that were in the works. We drove around trying to find a movie I'm not sure exists at this point. We even tried to buy it, but it was rediculously expensive. After all this, we just settled for Bourne Identity. Then we talked about the most idiotic things (I must assume they were equally tired). I drove two people home and plan to be in bed by 2400.

Looking at my computer's system clock, I see I have already overshot that by 8 minutes.

iPod Video

I want to be clear. I like Apple products when they work. I got into a crazy rant last Tuesday because I was fed up with the utter lack of customer service when my iPod became depressed.

On the other hand, Apple has always made a good product (excluding my iPod which is very prone to failure). Their computer hardware is alright, and their software is quite good.

Steve Jobs (CEO) has recently announced the video iPod as well as the new G5. Both look exceptionally good. I'm not sure why he didn't wait for iPod Nanao's sales to plateau before the release, but he's the CEO and I'm not.

Also I should note while I'm on my Apple rant that in about a year there will be a Mac with an Intel chip as opposed to the PowerPC bastard child formerly running all the Macs. This is especially interesting as it means there has to be an x86 (Intel) version of OS X. Soon you will be able to buy all the great PC parts with their interchangability and replacability and choose to boot into either Windows (probably Vista, formerly Longhorn) or OS X.

Both definitely have their advantages and drawbacks. These are exciting times. I definitely don't envy Bill Gates (a.k.a. Satan) when Apple finally releases a version of OS X for PC...

Konfabulator

I recently discovered a very useful app for PC and Mac. It allows your computer to run "Widgets" on your desktop to do a variety of useful things.

I have one to remote control iTunes without bringing it up, another with the current weather, and one to apply a tint to my monitor at night to reduce the contrast slightly.

There are many more functions and I'm sure I've only grazed the survace, but I suggest you explore and play around with this. The website has a huge gallery of widgets of which I've only had the chance to look through briefly.

If you find a particularly useful widget, leave me a comment.

The Asshats at Apple

My first iPod was broken before I got it all the way out of the box. So I had it replaced. The problem was, they didn't transfer over my warrenty to the new serial number.

When it broke again, they told me I had to send them money to ship it back for servicing. It was within 6 months of the original warrenty, but they would hear nothing of it. They gave me the slip saying I needed to PROVE when it was purchased.

I got the credit card statement, but that wasn't enough. So I got compusmart to fax me the invoice. By this time it was more than 6 months from the original date of purchase, so I had to pay anyway.

Due to this kind of horrible service, I will never buy an apple product again. I hope you do the same.

Gobble

Happy turkeyday everyone.

And now Derek's Eating Advice:
1) To maximize the amount you can eat, I suggest you pace yourself. If your stomach gets full, there's still plenty of room in the large intestine. Pacing yourself solves this.

2) No matter how full you get, there is always room for pie. Always. Don't take no for an answer. Your body will thank you later.

Don't drink and drive. The damage to your vehicle is hard to explain.

License to Kill

The new license has come in handy already. After I got some joyriding out of my system, I was able to pick people up and drop them off so we could watch a movie.

Driving beats biking in responsibility and convenience, but biking has some manliness and exercise that I miss. To compensate for the manliness loss, I have been driving with the sun in my eyes and squinting instead of wearing sunglasses or something.

Also, as they were all pleased to observe, I had four girls in my car. I highly recommend this to anyone as it looks cool.

Driving Test

I took my road test today and am now the proud owner of a class 5 (GDL) licence. This beats my aunt who failed twice before she got her license. Now my friends need to get off their lazy asses and drive. No more excuses.

Drinks all around. But none for me. I'm driving.

Hard drives of DOOM!

My hard drive was sick and now windows doesn't recognize it. Normally under these circumstances I'd format it, but I want to do some data recovery if I can.

The programs I've found are VirtualLab 5 and Stellar Phoenix NTFS. Both are basically trial versions and only allow you to see all the wonderful data they could recover for you. They taunt you with your own drive.

I'm thinking there has to be at least one free data recovery app out there, with the internet being quite big and all. So far no luck though.

If you know of some free software or something that could be pirated, send me an email.

Soccergirl Inc.

Recently I've been getting into the podcasts. There are a couple noteworthy ones that I'm going to post about over the next few days (or weeks).

So I'm on iTunes's music store browsing podcasts and come across "Soccergirl Incorporated". I was curious and decided to give it a listen. Soccergirl's podcasts consist of her podcasting from her bathtub (so I'm told) and saying things like "Wine and dine me first... Then we can have butt sex".

Speaking as a male, this was pretty hot. Her voice sounds hot too. Obviously more research was required. So I got to looking for pictures of her (she said she had topless ones). I'm sad to say that I've found them.

Soccergirl was much hotter before I saw her pics. Just to show you what I mean, I'll link this. It doesn't have profuse titage, but if that's your thing, check out her blog (link in title). Also, she has a video of herself blowing a microscope.

It's great that she's comfortable enough with herself to post pics on the net, but it ruined my experience. On the other hand, I do agree with her on this; "poor people don't have photoshop."

TightVNC

I have been using TightVNC to remote control my PC. It is a really useful program in that I can play minesweeper from school.

Western Championships (Junior Nationals)

I just got back from victoria, bc and had a blast. For starters, everything is green and warm and humid and nice. In my races I had a few very good ones including making an "A" final as a rookie in 100 BK. It was very cool and I moved from 8th place to 7th place, taking off nearly 2 seconds. Other than that we all ate, slept and swam although there are some very funny stories.