HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH

2 words

 

Fail blog

 

Google it, you'll soo enjoy the results.

...and it goes back

So it was fun while it lasted.

I played with Win7 for a bit o the computer, but I just didn't have the space on the hard drive to work it. Then I went and played with getting it on my laptop.  It took some real playing around to get it ghosted on.  Then there was problems with the touchpad, the vga driver etc... I got it worked out - so if you're trying to get se7en on a netbook, email me and I can help you.

I played around with it for a while, and it was working well.  Then against better judgement (I had read something on the forums against this) I installed messenger.  Hrmm... I tried to boot it into safe mode to uninstall it, but it wouldn't let me.  I couldn't boot into normal mode 'cuz it crashes with msn.

So here I am with XP again.  It works, I know it inside and out... I'll wait to get a hard drive for playing with seven on my desktop.

Lately I don't get along with electronics

So I've been putting a big push on lately to 'digitize' my work.  I've started to use OneNote to assemble items for projects and reports.  Google Docs for collaboration and sharing docs.  Access to track etc... I like to make things efficient.  If possible.

 

One way lately was that the phone I was given was pretty basic.  I'm used to my PDA... and I didn't want to fill up my palm with all work stuff AND my own.  It'd be too bloated.  I should find one just for work... and if it was a phone as well... I've never used a Treo, but I think I'd like to try.

 

So I do what most people like me do when they want something but are too cheap... they eBay.  I found a Treo700w.  And it wasn't a bad price so I get it home and play with it.  Not bad... since there was no Wifi on it, I try getting the BT part to work... no dice... well not easily.  And without a sync cable it's even harder.  Eventually I get it to workable condition.  I go to TBayTel to see if they'll switch the phone over.  Luckily they say they can't without a lock code and I'll need that to do it.  So I go home to find it and in my curiosity I decide to go and play around with the BT update... and as it turns out it bricks the phone.

 

Almost a full hour on the phone with Palm tech support leads me to believe that nobody at Palm understands what people ask.  Palm keeps saying that:

1. we won't replace it
   
2. we don't recommend that you do the upgrades we put on our site
   
3. we won't replace it
   
4. we don't fix phones either
   
5. headquarters doesn't have a 1-800 number
   
6. we won't replace it

After I've said to them that I didn't want it replaced they kept harping on the point that they wouldn't replace it... ugh.  What really gets me is that they said "we don't recommend you do the updates".  I mean... there was nothing on the site saying "don't do this IF"... in fact it was quite the opposite.

Oh, well... hopefully this guy in Ottawa can fix it.  I'd still like to try it out.  Windows Mobile does look kinda neat.

My next foray into something drastic is to try to find a way to get Windows 7 on my laptop.  I've tried it on the computer... and it's wicked... then I screwed something up and had to take it off... but I think I did it in the wrong way and now there's a folder on my one drive I can't get to...

Well digging on the eeePC forums I found a way to 'ghost' the files onto the laptop.  But this time I'm being smart.  I'm ghosting the image of the laptop as a backup... so I can 're-ghost' if I foul things up severely... hopefully.

25 minutes of backing up the old hard drive... 42 to go... so that means in roughly 2 hours I should have se7en on my eeePC.  i'm such a geek about it!

Wii life

I swear I had written this up already, but I guess not.

 

So we did get the Wii.  I was told by the Future Shop people that they would be in stock on the Friday an that they'd be open at 10am.  I asked if I would be allowed to reserve one they said "no, just show up".  So I had a breakfast appointment to make for 830 and I'd be able to make it no problem.

 

The breakfast appointment was for Churchill's co-op employer's appreciation.  Free meal!  And I got to mingle with some of the employers in town.  Not a bad deal.

I finished up around 915 or so.  So I had time to kill.  I went to Starbuck's and hung out on the free Wifi... seeing as I had time and there was no need to rush.  I didn't want to be "that guy" standing at the doors of the shop waiting for it to be open.

 

Finally I go to the shop and park the car in the lot.  There's a few cars around... and a few people in the little 'foyer' of the shop (it was bitterly cold).  I still held my ground.  I don't want to be one of the 'rushers'.  So I wait a bit longer as they still haven't opened the doors.  Then I start to see that they are handing bits of paper to the people in the lobby.  Hrmm...  I better investigate.

 

I get into the lobby at 10:05 and it's packed.  I ask somebody what the deal with the paper is and they say it's to reserve your Wii... CRAP CRAP CRAP.

 

So I see some official looking guy and ask if there's any left, as they start to open the doors and the flood of people go in.  He says there is but disappears.  Now people are lining up.  Now I'm a bit concerned... hrmm...  I start to look about and finally the dude gets me #41.  Yeehaw, now to go sit in line.

 

LOOONG LINE

 

Essentially it's people who, like me, had no realization that this would be as it was.  That it was going to be a limited supply or such a demand for it.  As I'm standing in line I'm explaining what I know about Wiis to other people who are just about willing to pay the extra $100 to have somebody install it (it's 3 wires... really!?) when I notice that off to the side there is a stack of like 100.  So I grab the dude who gave me #41 and ask him why I needed this piece of paper if there's obviously a large pallet over there.  He rushes an answer of "it guaranteed you one".  And then I see the light.  Not too bad a system.  Were there not any numbers, people would have mad dashed in and just scrambled over them.  Much like that Russian store that was selling cheap laptops.  This prevented it.  Good job FS.

 

So we have it now... and it's not too bad.  I've been playing Sports for a while and doing the fitness test.  When we first did it, I had like 60+ and that was weird.  I got it to like 50 or so.  Then dad comes over and scores like 46.  Pfft...  I think I'm 37 today according to it.  It really goes back and forth alot.  I've had as low as like 25 or something.  Just so long as I don't have to do boxing for my test.  I absolutely HATE boxing.  It makes no sense.  Stupid sensors.

 

So, I need some games to get.  We got the 2nd remote now... and I'm struggling with getting an actual game game, or just get these challenge type games.  If I were to get a GAME game, I'd probably just play it way too often.

Our newest purchase (to be)

So... we have a few gift certificates to burn up.  My hope was for one of those big USB drives... that way I can start to save space on my hard drives and install Windows 7 permanently.

But in pondering which one to buy I had a couple of other options swim through my head and in a silly move I decided to voice one of these options... ever since Mandy now punctuates her sentences with:

I love you... but I'd love you more if we had the Wii

So... I've had to do some searching for a console in town.  Well I say searching; what I mean is looking through the flyers to find the best deal in town on one and then see if Future Shop will meet it and if they have any in stock (btw - not until Friday).

We'll be Wii people... not sure exactly how I feel about it, but I do think it's cool.

So what should we get?  Mandy wants the Fit... we'll grab the Wii Play as it's essentially a cheap spare remote... Kelly has a bunch of suggestions; what's yours?

I never did finish up the entries for my trip

I found myself with a moment or so at work with nothing to do (which is insane as this week is nuts for meetings).  So I peruse my own blog (yes, I know I need more photos up soon) and noticed that I had blogged 2 days of my trip, but not the 3rd.  Well I"ll catch you up on that right now.

So the day started out a bit earlier than I liked as I stated earlier that there were hockey players at the hotel and if I wanted anything for breakfast (ahh, the continental breakfast) I would have to get up fairly early.  So I did.. got my hard boiled eggs and then I promptly went back to bed seeing as my appointment with HIEC wasn't until 930 and they were just down the road.

When it was time to get up and checkout of the hotel I got in my rental and drove just down the road to my appointment.  Which would be normally quite simple, however, the building they were in was a weird conglomeration of many businesses and I couldn't find their entrance.   So I circled a few more times before calling them up and asking.

As I said earlier, the guy I was to meet was sick so that cut out alot of what I was to meet with them about.  It was a good meeting had some good talks about what we do and some of the suggestions how to make it better.  All in all, a good session.  I opened my mouth and I think I might have volunteered myself for something more than I wanted... we'll see.  But really worthwhile trip.

When we were done I stole some internet and headed on out.  I was getting ready to head into Toronto when I glanced at my clock and it said it was only like noon.  My flight wasnt until 9pm so I wasn't going to wait that long.  Anybody I knew in TO was probably working so I couldn't do any visiting...

So I decided to drive on down to Barrie... brutal roads on the way there.  Really dry and windy so it would  blow across the highway limiting visibility.  But I made it to Burnett's & Struth and looked about the shop.  Mandy wanted some tartan for a quilt... and they had $6 scrap bags... but I wanted MacAlpine - but at $80/meter it was't to be.  So I just bought another MacAlpine scarf (for $30) and headed back to TO.  I get to Pearson and find the drop off for the car; which is  cool system in itself.  Some guy just comes out, loks over the car, prints you off a receipt and you walk away.

The receipt for the rental was a bit ower than I expected and as I got my gear ready to get ito te airport I noticed it was barely 3... hmm 6 hours to kill.  So I call Kelly, just to say I did.  I knew she was working and wouldn't be able to come out and visit, and if I could have stayed, I woulda gone into town for like 5 o'clockish and then have to be back for like 7... so that woulda been impossible if I was to use public transit... and had I kept the rental it woulda been a bitch to find parking and etc... still woulda been a tough feat to make it.

To help pass the time I check in with the airline and and check my baggage.  Turns out that my suitbag wasn't the heaviest bit of my luggage.  That laptop of work's is HUGE... and the charger is big as well.  Maybe I'm just used to my eeePC, and maybe it was the combo of both laptops ... but that bag got heavy quick.

I missed lunch on the trip out to Barrie so I thought I'd get some at the airport.  There was a Swiss Chalet which wasn't too bad.  I hoped it would chew up 2 hours... but when it was not even 1 hour and I was almost done I got concerned.  But as luck would have it te waitress practically inored me for almost an hour and so by the time the bill was paid I had killed 2 hours there... only 4 more before the flight.  What next... well I walked around... alot.

I eventually found some bench where I sat and plugged i and remembered that I had brought some videos on my keys (I did watch UFC 93 in the hotel the previous night... AWESOME AWESOME AWESOME).  I watched almost all 4 hours of Kevin Smith's Threevening.  I coulda watched all of it, but I needed to get up and walk about.

Doing nothing is absolutely insanely boring and tiring I must say.

The flight home was pretty uneventful... thankfully Mandy had the foresight to talk to my dad about picking me up.  Something I had totally forgot about.  By the time I got home, unpacked it was like after 1pm... ugh.  I slept in the next day a little.

Funny post story - in my absolute sleep deprived brain I thought that I slept in for work and it was Monday... Monday was to be a busy day... how could I be sleeping in for it.  I got up and ran to get to work...  I was almost out the door before I realized it was just Friday...  I had all weekend to procrastinate getting rady for the next week.

Okay... when Mandy's off the computer, I'll post some of the pictures of Dean on my space.

L8R

Training Day - part 1

So the morning started around 6am... uh.  I hit snooze a few times, and in typical Ryan fashion I hit it a few more and somehow figured out how to turn it off... still woke up before 7 luckily so I could get a shower and breakfast in (WHAT... NO EGGS... argh... best part of continental breakfasts).  I check out and read some of the National Post - and this caught my eye.

Why do I always find myself living in the wrong city... ah well.

So I'm picked up and head to the city's Chamber of Commerce speaker meeting... not sure exactly what it was for, but their P2P guy was involved, so I shadowed.  Spent alot of time seeing if I could get on the wi-fi, and when I coudn't I updated contacts on my palm (still waiting for my treo... grr... stupid ebay).

At the office after we hung out and chatted a little until the other coordinator had a meeting to make, so I tagged along.  Very neat as it was a local guitar manufacturer (no website as of yet... but it's RED MAPLE GUITARS)... very cool.  Awesome guitar sound.  We met with somebody else, but it wasn't as fruitful.

The afternoon was pretty well near over and I headed back to their office and chatted a bit more before heading out.  Stopped off at Chapters for some books (found a sweet one for Dean... I''m growing to be a real softy lately about him) and then on to Future Shop (still haven't used up that card and it's burning a hole in my pocket).

The ride from London to Burlington was not cool... very sleety like snow... slippery and several cars in a ditch... not something to set me at ease.  the hotel was easy to find (thanks to the GPS) and it turns out they have a hockey team staying there so they're advising people to get breakfast early... CRAP.  And since the guy I'm to train with tomorrow is very sick, I'm just going to have less to do tomorrow so they said I can sleep in... early breakfast and then go bak to sleep?  totally a possibility for me.

I'll let you know tomorrow how it goes.  I dread if I finish the day too soon tomorrow as I'll havea  huge gap before my flight home... ugh.

GPS's will be our downfall

So, here I am in southern Ontario... London to be exact.  I'm here to meet with other offices and see how they do things... sort of my training.

So the flight isn't too bad, a little delayed... and cramped.    But the real fun comes in when I'm sitting in YYZ waiting for my bags.  Well I say bags, but I mean bag... I'm travelling light.  I hate waiting, plus I'm so finding that I hate 'crowd mentality'.  Like when we're to board the plane, everybody rushes to get seated... you know what?  The plane won't leave until e're all on, we all get the spot regardless.

So I get to Pearson and I go looking for the rental booth... took some searching, but I got it.  It's a neat Ford Escape (Nolan, you've got this as well?  cool choice).  It's got usb plus audio in and sirius ... and of course I had to get the GPS unit.

Now as I foud out last time we drove to Minneapolis when we used Greg's GPS I found I was much more anxious as I relied wholly on the unit and didn't even look at a map hardly.  But it's Minneapolis... I know Minneapolis.  For some reason I didn't take this lesson to hear when I got to Toronto.  I pop the unit on and start driving.  It wasn't until I got out of the parkade that I went "I don't know which way to go" and I say this to myself as I stare at teh "ACQUIRING SIGNAL" screen... it continued to do that for about 10 minutes.  So fo 10 minutes I just drove around aimlessly near Pearson... when it finally gets going I find that I have been going in the wrong direction and criscrossed the toll high way a few times as I tried to get back on track (any body know if the 427 'collector' is the toll highway?) and the thing starts beeping "LOW BATTERY"... so I'm faced with the threat of it dying and me not having a clue where to go.  So I struggle trying to get the charger on and finally start my trek to London.  So it went well... turns out that I didn't have the thing plugged and dies; so while on the 427W I really have to mess with the unit to get it plugged in (luckily it didn't lose the destination).  To top it off... the mout kept falling off the glass... ugh.  Like 5 times in the trip.

I think I'm going to enjoy the trip from here on in.  I had a baconator... I have free breakfast coming to me... and I get to shadow people for the few days.

Yeehaw.

A new year - a new entry

It feels like it's been ages since I've written anything on this thing.  Heck, it's been weeks since I've even turned on this laptop.  How can I even remember where I left off...  I better go to the site to check it out... please wait.

I know there's no time passing for you, but for me, this is taking forever.  My new job is only aiding my low attention span as I'm constantly flipping gears for different projects.  In finding my blog I'm doing a set up for FireFox, checking my computer's work for a partition I mean for windows 7 (ooh, it's probably done now, I should see what I can do for it now), and watching "Lady in the Water".

Okay, found it... I think what I'll do is work backwards in time... makes more sense when you'll read this anyways.

So most recently... today we got a crapload of snow.  Almost as much as that time last year.  This year, we have Mandy's nanny's snow blower, but there's always been a catch tho'.  It just barely fit in the shed, so I've never used it, as to use it, it meant shovelling out all that area behind the shed, using the snow blower to get down the lane, down the side road, up the sidewalk and then use it for the little curb area, as we can't use it on the driveway due to the gravel.  Well, I never bothered to use it previously because it just seemed a bigger hassle to use it than to just shovel.

Well, today it snowed alot and I figured it was time to give it a shot.  Within minutes of my shovelling to the back shed, Greg was over.  Which was good, as he knew how to get it working.  After some playing with it, it eventually turned over.  And, as you would have it, we found out that it would fit through the side door of the shed, and then the side lane gate as well... double bonus!  So we got to play with the snow blower and it was really cool.  It really did throw the gravel if it was on any, so when I was near the drive I had to be careful where I was aiming the chute.

What previously... well Dean's been getting bigger.  He's really starting to crawl and furniture walk, and getting ready to just stand and walk.  Awesome.  Really cool to watch him turn into a person as he gets more and more of a personality.  There are still some days that he wakes up in the middle of the night that frustrates me, but all part of being a dad.

New Years - we had some discussion and we decided eventually that we'd ship Dean off to the grandparents (the Knauffs; my parents still had my sister's kids all about - so they had their hands full)and we went to the Family Frolic at Old Fort William (I guess I should call it Fort William Historical Park as it is officially known).  So, kidless, we went with Adam, Kelly, Kris and Greg.  It wasn't too bad actually.  We went on a sleigh ride (Adam's first ever), and to Bouche's Tavern to have some hot dogs.  To get to there we had to go the round about way, and it is a bit of a distance from the Fort that people wondered where I was leading them, but eventually we got there.  It was nice and secluded, apparently nobody else was going there.  We enjoyed roasting the dogs over the fire.  I just so can't wait until summer to go camping.

The night ended at 10pm with an amazing fireworks display.  Really!  It was something you wouldn't expect at New Years.  As it turned out, we were watching the fireworks only a few feet away from Charm and Steve and the kids.  Neat.

After getting home quickly we went to Kris and Greg's for some typical New Year's eve events: word games and Wii and even a round or 2 of "the Newlyweds".  (We lost one game and tied another).  Next thing you know, it's 5am and time to head home.  The 'morning', we had agreed to go online and post our status on MSN so that we'd know who was awake and could call when we decided to go for breakfast.  This time, the adventure breakfast was quite short as we went to Chicago Joe's.

We picked Dean up and headed to home and some minor holiday cleaning.  Charm and Steve said they'd like to come over and we said that we needed to get ready and that we were heading out to a family dinner, so they could come over between 2 and 4... this meant they came over at 345 and stayed until 445... I'm so turning into my dad, as it agitated me some amount.

Dinner at Sandi's was good.  The chicken was spectacular..., Dean however was less than enthused.  He had only an hour nap and missed his 2nd nap of the day so when we went, he had only a few minutes of a nap which made him extra cranky.  He ultimately made my decision to take him home early while Mandy stayed for another round of Family Feud.

Christmas was a great time.  Dean didn't really get the whole opening gifts thing, but I think he really enjoyed all the family attention and the new play things.  He really had a good haul this year.  He enjoys all the gifts the family gave him, even the boxes they came in.  It was great how he was excited and was ready to play, everytime we went to take a picture of him, he had this really sad and unenthused look on his face.  I'll post pictures soon, but there's just one hilarious one where we put this cap on him that said "Noel 2008" and he was just so 'unimpressed' over it.  Classic pic... hopefully not the sign of things to come from him.

The family get togethers and meals were just great... since leaving retail I really really enjoy the family stuff.  Amanda and Iain are just getting to be big kids now... crazy how time marches on, especially when you aren't looking.

What else there to talk about?  My new job is great.  I had an amazing time at the Job Fair that the chamber of commerce put on.  It was a "home for the holidays" and more idea... so I went around and talked to the employers about my role and program.  Really in some ways my job is amazing.  I get to network all day long essentially.  I got my travel arrangements completed.  Leaving in a few days to go to London and then Burlington.  Too bad it's a too short a trip to do any travelling or visiting, but it'll be good to see how other centres work.  Next trip (April for OCEA) I'll try to get some visiting in... maybe I'll even get to Henry's and trade in my camera... maybe.  I did find a Treo 700w on eBay which I'll use for the job while I'm there.  Kinda excited to test out some WinMo.

Oh, can't forget about the sleigh ride.  Mandy and Kelly truly had a great idea this year.  For a gift for the family they decided that they should host a sleigh ride.  A chance for all the family to come out, enjoy a nice horse drawn sleigh ride, some hanging out in a chalet with hot chocolate, and some good food.  Made shopping really easy.  Too bad more people couldn't make it, but it was great.  Greg and his brothers had some fun knocking each other off the ride... they had an amazing apple cider/drink ... and we did a nativitiy/activity where Dean got to be the baby Jesus.  So much fun.  It'll definitely become an annual event.  Sue from Gammondale's did a great job of entertaining us all; would have been ideal if there were more kids, which I think she expected there was, but it was still a great night.  Kelly has some video to work with and maybe I'll post links for that (I really should put more on my soapbox page).

Well, I think I've caught everything up.  Going to go check on the Win7 installation... stoked to try it out!  Reviews have been good... I can hear Dean waking up too... I should take him while Mandy gets dinner ready.

Hopefully it on't be another month before I write something on here.