that ring of confidence

R2D2: small helpful robot needed

I am overworked. There is no doubt about that. I am working about 50 hours a week at my job at Pacific Cellular, running the arts section of the Phoenix and organizing the PWRCUP conference which is going to be on this time next month. All in all it's a pretty stressful time.

Which is why if anyone has a small helper monkey, or R2D2 style astromech droid, I'd be much obliged for a loan. They/It could help me by selling phones while I'm at lunch, dealing with angry customers, lining up speakers and presenters for the conference and designing a t-shirt.

Or at least a girlfriend to keep my mind of these sorts of things after I swing the sign to close at the store and head home. As it stands the only thing I've done in the last three days after work is watch the audio commentaries on the Star Wars movies. Which isn't anywhere near as exciting as say having sex, or cuddling or kissing or planning a picnic. (Or whatever boyfriend/girlfriend combos do).

However while everything is a bundle of stress, things are going okay. I'm making enough money that I'm starting to size up buying myself an iMac G5 for my birthday, and today the store hit its activations quota for the month. We didn't go over it, unless there's a rush in the next two hours, so that means I won't be winning the company awarded trip to Las Vegas but then again it's not like I would have time for a trip to Vegas.

Plus with Cass and Sean starting here in the next week or so things should get a bit easier. At least once they're trained in a month. Until then they'll be like newbies trying to learn how to chat online properly.

Which reminds me, of all the extensive college/university education I've done the two most useless courses were both OUC Continuing Education Courses. One was about learning how to use HyperCard and the other was about how to use the internet, back in the days when the internet was something mysterious that lurked only in universities and libraries. Now it's what I spend my day on, whether it's arguing with the computer on the Rogers activations website, or blogging while waiting for something interesting to happen at work, or at home chatting up a storm with the newbies and the shorties.

The Longest Day

Just look at it, gentlemen. How calm... how peaceful it is. A strip of water between England and the continent... between the Allies and us. But beyond that peaceful horizon... a monster waits. A coiled spring of men, ships, and planes... straining to be released against us. But, gentlemen, not a single Allied soldier shall reach the shore. Whenever and wherever this invasion may come, gentlemen... I shall destroy the enemy there, at the water's edge. Believe me, gentlemen, the first 24 hours of the invasion will be decisive. For the Allies as well as the Germans, it will be the longest day... The longest day. - Field Marshal Erwin Rommel, The Longest Day, 1962

It is only 11:31 am and I am already wanting today to end. After having a Star Wars party yesterday where we started watching the movies at 11 am and finished around midnight, I am ready to die. It wasn't the actual act of watching the movies that is going to finish me off, but rather the fact that starting with Episode IV: A New Hope we started playing a rather terrible drinking game.

By the end of the first film was done I had drank a 750ml bottle of white wine. I tried to slow down and pace myself through The Empire Strikes Back but still finished off a vodka cooler and some shots of straight vodka. By the midway point in Return of the Jedi I was throwing up in the bathtub.

I woke up at about 6:30 am and didn't go back to sleep. I drank water, showered, shaved half my face, recharged my razor, shaved the other half of my face and cleaned the bathtub. I then headed for work, with the knowledge that I was working with Gabe so I could spend the day curled up on the floor in the back room. Gabe though just came in for noon, so I had three hours of dealing with customers while feeling less than well.

Now Gabe's here and I feel a little better. So maybe I'll survive after all.

Best MSN conversation ever

The following is a MSN Messanger conversation between myself and Jeffrey Weston as we discuss the new Star Wars DVDs. The only back story you need to know is that our friend Cass is boycotting them due to some of the changes that Lucas has made to the films in this newest edition. Most controversial is the replacement of Sebastian Shaw as Luke's father at the end with a computer inserted Hadien Christenson.

Also you should know Jeff lives in Seattle, about 6 hours away by car, and I'm having a Star Wars Party on Sunday where we're going to watch all five movies.

Jeffrey \(^o^)/ says:
Star Wars on DVD...

Jeffrey \(^o^)/ says:
Good times...

Jeffrey \(^o^)/ says:
Watching it at work...

Kelly says:
Really.

Kelly says:
Cool.

Kelly says:
I don't have it yet. I ordered it online from FutureShop. It's not here yet.

Jeffrey \(^o^)/ says:
Amazon.com... Brings me the goods.

Kelly says:
Yeah, I should have gone Amazon.

Jeffrey \(^o^)/ says:
why did you buy it online, when you could have just gone to the store?

Kelly says:
I wanted to make sure I got it, though I wasn't able to go to the store right away. It was a dopey idea.

Jeffrey \(^o^)/ says:
You make Baby Lucas cry.

Kelly says:
I know. How is the preview for Revenge of the Sith?

Jeffrey \(^o^)/ says:
I haven't watched it yet...

Kelly says:
Ah.

Kelly says:
I saw a bit of the footage from Jedi on the TV in FutureShop yesterday. Damn it's sexy.

Kelly says:
I've never seen them look so good.

Kelly says:
You should come to my Star Wars party on Sunday.

Jeffrey \(^o^)/ says:
I would but airfare's a bitch.

Kelly says:
Okay, but you should watch all 5 at home on Sunday.

Jeffrey \(^o^)/ says:
Maybe...

Jeffrey \(^o^)/ says:
Is Cass going to fly into a rage, at your party, over the extra spots on Jabba?

Kelly says:
Yup.

Kelly says:
Or over the fact that Jabba is in New Hope.

Jeffrey \(^o^)/ says:
Does that blow his mind as well?

Jeffrey \(^o^)/ says:
I'm have big debate on in the Microsoft DVD Disscussion folders over this.

Kelly says:
Oh yeah, what's the word?

Jeffrey \(^o^)/ says:
I'm winning hands down... Lucas is Yaweh. He is the Lord.

Kelly says:
Ha ha.

Kelly says:
Or could maybe, you be losing?

Jeffrey \(^o^)/ says:
I'm arguing that Lucas is an artists who owns his art. He is entitled to do anything he wants with it.

Jeffrey \(^o^)/ says:
Since he is the original author.

Kelly says:
I see.

Jeffrey \(^o^)/ says:
It's fine to argue that the changes make the product worse, but not OK to agrue that Lucas should not the changes.

Jeffrey \(^o^)/ says:
The public does not own Star Wars. They are at his mercey.

Kelly says:
Admit, that most of the changes have not made the movie better.

Jeffrey \(^o^)/ says:
They have. They have made the entire saga fit better together.

Jeffrey \(^o^)/ says:
In 60 years when Kevin Smith and the Gen X'ers are dead, nobody is going to care.

Jeffrey \(^o^)/ says:
It's not like Lucas is changing the Plot or the theme... Or core aspects that made Star Wars so good.

Jeffrey \(^o^)/ says:
He's tweaking the outer edges... That's all.

Kelly says:
I admit some of the changes are better, but some of them are dopey.

Jeffrey \(^o^)/ says:
Maybe Lucas shouldn't have cleaned the Print... Maybe fans would prefer to also what Star Wars on the original dirty film they saw as kids.

Kelly says:
Admit it that Jar Jar Binks is a terrible character. That as much as it's okay to have Teddy Bears running around in Jedi to appeal to kids Jar Jar was a terrible awful miscalculation.

Jeffrey \(^o^)/ says:
That has nothing to do, with the original trilogy.

Kelly says:
I know, but it does.

Kelly says:
I'm all for Lucas cleaning up the print, and if he wants making the sfxs better, but he's shown a lack of comprehension about why people continue to love Star Wars. Yes the movies are for kids, but are they really only for kids? And not only for kids, but are they really only for kids with the brain capacity of lettuce?

Kelly says:
It makes sense to have Shaw in the last scene because Vader was still Anikan when he died, and the point was that Luke had redeemed him. So he was still good, and still a man when he died.

Jeffrey \(^o^)/ says:
What possible appeal to adults does Chewbecca, have? Or R2-D2?

Jeffrey \(^o^)/ says:
Chewbacca is the most useless Character int eh entire series...

Jeffrey \(^o^)/ says:
He pales in comparison to Jar jar

Jeffrey \(^o^)/ says:
At least Jar Jar can speak english, and reason.

Kelly says:
The whole point of the Jedi was that part of him was still good inside, and that's what allowed Luke to "save" him. Saying that he stopped being who he was as a teenager, well that means that Luke was wrong and for all those years there was no part of Anikan inside Vader.

Jeffrey \(^o^)/ says:
Then why did Annikan have arms and legs, when he appeared as a ghost?

Jeffrey \(^o^)/ says:
Vader didn't have those...

Kelly says:
Because as long as the soul is pure the body will follow. It's like when you go to heaven even if you had lost your legs in the Great War you have them all back.

Jeffrey \(^o^)/ says:
It was the Dark Side of the force that turned Annikan into the hateful Jedi, and resulted in his disfigerment.

Jeffrey \(^o^)/ says:
So it makes perfect sense for him to revert to his previous youth, before the Dark Side evelloped him.

Jeffrey \(^o^)/ says:
There is no soul in Star Wars.

Jeffrey \(^o^)/ says:
When regular people die, in star wars they die.

Jeffrey \(^o^)/ says:
They don't become ghosts.

Jeffrey \(^o^)/ says:
Only Jedi do, because of the Force... Because of hte Good side of the Force.

Old People

This is true, old people don't know how to work things. I spend way too much of my day explaining 1980s' technology to the elderly.

Aborted Soapbox

The following is what was to be the start of an article for the newspaper, that I decided to go a different direction with.

I was in the Well, watching the Tegan and Sara concert, when I heard my name called. I turned to see a tall fellow standing beside my chair. I said hello as I tried to place his face; had I worked in a project group with him once or taken a class with him or even gone to high school with him? I certainly could not place the face.

“I love your writing man,” he said.

Ah, it’s going to be one of those conversations.

He proceeded to tell me, in what I believe was a German accent, that he had been reading the Phoenix for years and enjoyed my articles “about encounters with women” the best. He wanted to know why I wasn’t writing anymore.

“I wrote a book review last issue,” I pointed out.

He waved his hand dismissively, and asked again for more stories about my encounters with women, more articles like I used to write about not being able to get a girlfriend. Book reviews and concert photography wouldn’t satiate him.

Now I suppose I should clarify what is meant by the fairly vague, phrase “encounters with women”. We’re not talking about erotic Penthouse Letters here, we’re talking stories of women not wanting to go out with me, mostly drawn from high school experiences. Tales of rejection, sadness and self-pity, described by someone else recently as a fruity “blend of Hunter S. Thompson and Douglas Coupland”. I would call it a mix of Woody Allen and the Magnetic Fields but then again who am I to judge.

Am I still the same person as I was when I wrote those types of articles? Granted I still identify with the Beck song “Loser” and I’m a 26-year-old virgin who has never had a girlfriend and I’m starting to worry that one day I’ll identify not with “Loser” but with the Tragically Hip’s “38 Years Old”, a song with a chorus that claims “he’s 38 years old and never kissed a girl”. Yet I would like to think I’ve grown in some way, gotten past the point where I have to whine about being single in print. I mean isn’t that what this website is for?

Pascal Cygan must die!

Arsenal tied Bolton at Highbury today, which is a good result for Bolton. Bolton are a hard working team and always threaten to take points from the Gunners so it wasn't too much of a surprise to see that they'd done so again. Arsenal were up twice, but both times poor defending let Bolton draw it back.

Which is why Pascal Cygan, the crap French defender Arsenal bought a few years back, must die. Or be sold / melted down into scrap metal. However it's done we should make sure he's not going to be a first team starter again. Sadly the transfer deadline has passed, so we're stuck with him. It's all well and good that we have Sol Campbell who is the best English defender there is right now, Ashley Cole who is probably the second or third best but if Campbell's injuried we can't always be relying on the dregs. It saved our bacon last year when Kolo Toure turned from being a raw kid (he's still 23) into a genius defender overnight, but if Campbell gets a long term injury we're in a heap of trouble.

Never trust a man with a ponytail: beware crack hoes

Work is starting to get as annoying as I knew it would. Gabe got yelled at by a customer on Friday and son now he won't work by himself at all. Which means that I have to work 6 shifts a week, which is a bit much even for someone who has given up on having a social life, like I have. If I had a girlfriend she would be wanting to put me on viagra because an sort of notion of a libido is gone from me. I'm not even masterbating that much anymore. I'm just plum worn out, and I haven't even started hard into school yet, which is sort of a terrible thing. I've also only done one issue of the Phoenix and so I'm sure by the end of the semester that will have lost all joy as well.

Meanwhile I've sort of settled on a layout for the blog after a few different attempts at a few different things. I went with one of the new mixed media blogs that TypePad just added, but I got two complaints about it and it wasn't quite all that yet. The main problems I had on it was that it wouldn't let me link my photo albums to it and the last 25 photos which were listed along the side would duplicate a photo even when I just edited a post with a picture (give me a few images of each shot).

I have an hour to go at work. There's a Rocket's game tonight, and Cass, Chad, Justin and myself are going to watch the only hockey we're going to get all year. By that I mean the Rockets, not that one specific pre-season game.

What's going on with those science people?

I'm in a Phoenix meeting right now. It's smashing. I got off early today because, well I get to work all day Saturday instead of having the day off. Having 1 day off a week is totally crappy. I will repeat that, it's totally crappy. I'm getting stressed out and I haven't even really started in hardcore on my two correspondence courses.

I realize that death awaits. There is no way out of this situation that doesn't end in tears and sadness.

Democrats troll Canadian campuses for U.S. voters

Pulse Flow: A mostly photographic blog by Stephen Hui

Dual citizens Sara Gottlieb, left, and Carly Erickson look for American students at the University of Toronto. The pair is participating in a Democratic campaign to register U.S. voters on Canadian campuses for the coming federal election. (Stephen Hui/Canadian University Press)

By Stephen Hui
CUP National Bureau Chief
2004-09-14

TORONTO (CUP) -- Mindful of the close results of the last United States presidential election and the four years that have followed, the Democratic party is hoping to sign up as many students to vote as possible -- at Canadian universities.

From coast to coast, volunteers are doing their best to spread the word that Americans studying in Canada -- even dual citizens who have never lived south of the border -- are eligible to vote in the Nov. 2 federal election.

"We're targeting students because they make up a significant portion of thoughtful voters who we believe will vote Democratic," said Joe Green, chair of Democrats Abroad Canada, the party's Canadian wing. "We're also targeting them because we think that it's part of a great exercise to get young people involved in a political process."

With voter registration deadlines fast approaching, volunteers are hitting campuses from the University of Victoria to Dalhousie University in Halifax during the opening weeks of the school year. Democrats Abroad has also taken out ads in 15 university student newspapers.

Volunteers are setting up tables at orientation events, walking around with clip boards, and looking for Americans at Concordia and McGill universities in Montréal, said Alex Blackstock, 22, a Concordia political science student and Democrats Abroad representative.

At the University of Toronto, political science student Carly Erickson, 20, is starting up a Democrats Abroad club. Erickson, along with women's studies student Sara Gottlieb, 22, are drawing attention to themselves and handing out pamphlets to inform American students of their right to vote.

Erickson and Gottlieb are both dual citizens who have spent much of their lives in Canada. This November will mark the first time either have voted in a U.S. election.

While Erickson was born in Lafayette, Indiana, she's registered to cast her absentee ballot in Potomac, Maryland, where her father lives. Gottlieb still needs to register to vote in her birthplace of Washington, D.C.

"Students in the U.S. have a hard enough time voting and keeping track of absentee ballots and registering to vote in a different state," Erickson said. "The American students that are going to school here have a really difficult time trying to sort through the paperwork and red tape."

Night out

When last we left you Chad had just arrived home from work and I was going to go and see "what's what". It turns out that Chad had plans to go to Doc's, a pub downtown, for wing night. Without much in the way of convincing I was talked into it and soon Chad, Kara, Justin, Cass and myself were seated around a large table ordering wings, beer, dry ribs and diet colas. It was a good night, and after we left Justin joined us at our place where I played some NHL2K3 and then we watched two episodes of Aqua Teen Hunger Force.

In NHL2K3 I'm already into the playoffs, having simulated most of the first season. I've won the first two rounds, against the Avalanche and the Kings, and now just have one game to go to beat the Coyotes in order to reach the final and bring the cup back home to Edmonton.

Which would be some-kind-of-fucking-wonderful, if it were real instead of a video game. Having said that I watched some Classic NHL on television the other day, and they showed the Oilers versus Blackhawks playoff series from 1990 when the Oil won their last cup. It was fucking brilliant. The Oilers had one game when they scored eight goals, and this was post Gretzky.

From tiny acorns...

ESPNSoccernet.com: UEFA Champions League: From tiny acorns...

Arsenal managed a win in their first Champions League game this week. Which is good, because let's face it a big bump in Europe could have unsettled them in England as well. Now they can keep the winning streak going, and hopefully take it all the way to Old Trafford when they meet Manchester United in a few matches.

By beating PSV Eindhoven, easily the second best team in their group, Arsenal have a pretty good shot at going through this round. It's unlikely that the other two teams have a chance of beating them and if they can draw back in Holland then they're top of the group. Even a loss to the Dutch team means as long as they win against the other two teams they're guaranteed to go through.

Having said that there are no for certainties in a tournament like this. Manchester United dropped points, Real Madrid lost in their opening game, so it goes to show that there's not much between a lot of these teams.

The future

I got a card from Nathan today thanking me for the fondue set and for speaking at his wedding. It was sweet, and showed the penmanship of a true gentleman. I also, after shifting through the stack of Captial News newspapers sitting at our front door, found that I had received a response from my application to my first post-secondary job. The package, from the Government of Canada no less, basically wants me to confirm that I'm not a habitual drug user and that they can run a background check on me to make sure I haven't spent a few years in an Afghanistan training camp learning about how to fly planes and look American. I have to clarify with them a few things about what they want in way of proof of my education. They want my official transcripts and a photocopy of my diploma but I don't have that yet since I'm not graduating until January. Or I'm not finished until January and then who knows when they actually get around to printing me out a diploma.

It sounds like Chad is home, so I'd better go and see what's what.

On hold

I've been on hold for the past hour with Rogers' Pay-as-You-Go people, trying to change a customer's hardware. It's been a pain, but as I listen to the hold music (Vancouver news radio) I've got a chance to do a post so I guess it's not too evil.

Last night I went to the Tegan and Sara show at the Well. As always it was hard to do photos because everyone crowded around the stage, and also because their lighting guy decided to put two soft blue lights on the band, thus making it much too dark for photography without a flash. I got one shot that I thought was going to be good, but is sort of blurry, so it may be that I have to use one of the photos I got of their opening act the No No Spots.

Which is disapointing, but what can you do?

I saw Gabe Cipes (which I think is the correct spelling) at the show. The last time I saw him he was playing bass for Biff Naked on her tour. He was in town for a few weeks, and now returning to Vancouver. He's someone I wasn't really friends with in high school, though he always seemed nice. I hear about him generally from people like Chad and Aaron (though I haven't heard from Aaron in like forever).

Fucking with the design

As typical I'm playing with the design of the site, trying out some of the mixed-media styles that TypePad has on offer. I'm not yet sold on them, the colours aren't as hip as my orange and white style that I stole from the Dutch away kit. So over the next few days you'll probably see the site changing styles a few times. I'll settle on something and then calm down.

Blow to the side of the head

Today is day one of two days in a row this week that I'm working by myself. It's been slow enough recently that one person working on their own isn't a big deal. Unless of course you get punched in the side of the head. No that did not happen to me, but it happened to Gabe on Saturday. A customer got upset about his phone being water damaged, and thus Motorola would not repair it, so he hit Gabe on the side of the head and stole a rental phone.

Gabe called the cops who took over half an hour to show up, and then called me. I was reluctant at first to go because I'm a bastard and the Canada versus Czechoslovakia World Cup of Hockey Game was on. However I decided to go and sat around while Gabe waited for the RCMP to show up. When they (he) arrived the Mountie basically said since there was no witnesses and no obvious physical injury on Gabe there was not much that they could do.

Gmail Invites

I've been using Google's new email system Gmail. It is fine and sexy and the best thing since Hotmail was not owned by Microsoft. I'm slowly going to be ditching Hotmail and moving totally to Gmail and my .Mac address as well.

I've got 6 invites left so if you want to use Gmail before anyone else, or at least anyone you know, then email me. Then I'll hook you up if I've got some left. It's way better than Hotmail (100 MB versus 4 MB) and has a sexy Google search built right in.

Woozy

I feel woozy. I've had a headache all day and now after taking enough painkillers to stun a horse I feel as stunned as a horse. Which seems to be the way this day is going. It's just a day when, though nothing particularly is going wrong, there really seems to be no reason for you to be living. Not that living is bad, but it just seems so... not required... on days like this. The sort of day that makes atheists into agnostics. Come to think of it a day like this would probably make anyone into an agnostic because if God had spent his time making something so bland, one must question his usefullness if not his existance. Having said that I'm hoping life will pick up a bit. Tomorrow I'm going to the Tegan and Sarah show at the Well to cover it for the Phoenix, which will be fun.

There is much more to say, but I'm kaput for now.

The unwired life

Okanagan University College now appears to have a wireless network in the Arts building. This is super exciting and is what is currently allowing me to blog this post.

Today I woke up at 6:15 am thinking that I would probably need about 40 minutes to get to OUC. Instead I needed about 14, so I've got some time to kill, which is perfect since I've not posted anything for awhile.

I spent last night doing laundry at my parents' house, as their machines are so much nicer than the ones Chad, Cass and I share. Nobody was home so I spent the time having a bath and watching the new Invader Zim DVD that I bought the day before. I also applied for my first post-university job online.

Applying for jobs that aren't working in retail is awesome. I'm hopeful that I'll at least get an interview, and it would nice to have a few options come graduation in December.