Christmas 2007

Yes, this is my hand.

An Awesome Christmas Present!

I am taking my annual post-Christmas visit with Jorgh in Chicoutimi until the new year. Jorghnassen's father took Jorgh and I to the local SAAQ this morning, where he officially signed over his 1997 Rav4 to Jorghnassen. So now it is my our car and we are ready to go!

Yay! Thank you!

Merry Christmas!

I wish you all very happy holidays this season, and hope you are spending time with your loved ones and enjoying your time together, despite the less-than-white weather on the east side of the country and pretty awful dumps the west was blessed with.

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And without furthur ado, here is the year-end round-up. I will probably forget to do this later this week from the miscellany of things to worry about - like getting a car and figuring out what I'll be doing in Chicoutimi after Christmas.

The many things (or lack of things) that happened this year are more or less well documented on my blog. Thus, dear readers (new and old and in-between) can peruse the archives and get the gist of each moment from A to Z - agony to zen.

January
Had weird dreams, and was also introduced to supply teaching at the adult education center. Posted some interesting art, along with a first foray in vectorizing. Douchebaggery continues.

February
Started to regularly supply teach at a school where it felt like total chaos. Most likely not my fault.

March
Stopped supply teaching at the school because it was total chaos. Not really my fault. Also: whining about taxes again.

April
Uploaded some cover songs/music on Tindeck produced by myself on violin and a shitty microphone on a headset. Surprised the bejeezus out of Norm. Somehow a minor internet celebrity stumbles upon this blog. And my brother starts becoming more of a real life celebrity.

May
Start of gardening season because the snow didn't melt until then. More douchebaggery occurs.

June
Actual training for Run for the Cure began, when I could have started earlier. The school year wound down with a good note, with the first foray into supply teaching French for elementary school, involving a violin...?

July
Wrote some short stories, attempting some creativity. Went to Boston! And Waterloo. But Boston! Sorry... Bwawston.

August
Focused on running some more, and attending the third wedding of the summer. Some more vector photoshopping!

September
Sketch that turned into a t-shirt (idea). Ran a bunch more. There was some sort of birthday in there somewhere.

October
Ran the race! Revisited Waterloo with Jorghnassen to help him move in. Hives. :(

November
Went to Montreal for the teacher's convention, and ended up staying two weeks due to being sick and losing my voice. :(:(

December
Spent some time in Montreal to help Jorghnassen become a doctor. ;) On a whim, I answered an ad for a teacher needed in Waterloo, and surprisingly enough I got the job. Now agonizing over getting a used car.

And to end on a cute note, here is a flash game about a bunny. Snow included!

Return of the Christmas Tree!

Incidentally, the digital camera ceased functioning correctly this year, probably due to the contact points with the batteries, so I didn't get to take instant photos of the tree-making process this year. :(

To make up for it, below are the previous 3 years' Christmas Tree(s). They are all pointing to the left.



Why, you may ask, through the passage of time do all these trees look the same? It is because we have had this artificial tree for more than 20 years, and the ornaments for at least 15. On top of putting the tree together year after year over the last 20 years, I have had to do it by myself in the last three or four years, and I still haven't figured out which colour code on the tip of the bristle goes at which level of the tree. And every year, the tree seems to look worse.

From loss of its plastic needles to the vacuum cleaner, to the decrease of its perpendicularity from the demands of gravity, the plastic tree has its quirks.

Nevermind that the holes along the "trunk" of the tree have been deteriorating over time, to the point where it can barely hold up the stems of the bristles. Nor that the original plastic base that came with the tree broke into smithereens ages ago and we took to using a metal base meant for an actual tree to sit in, with parts that are meant to be drilled into the actual tree stump to hold it into place, thus destroying the "trunk" even further. Nor that the parts all get twisted and stuffed into a box at the end of every season, and come out looking even more flattened the next holiday. And dressing up the tree in rather (real) old-skool child-made ornaments pretty much guarantees the perpetual pathetic antiquated look.

This is an ode, to you, tree. Some people hold their real trees more dearly than an artificial one; but you, reliable friend, have never caught on fire and for that I truly appreciate you.

Indeed it is.

A Merry Cleaning Ninja Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Return to Obscurity

The teacher is returning on Monday, but I have a supply day Monday as well for another teacher so it still means I have to go back there Monday.

I wasn't sure yesterday if I was supposed to return to continue replacing but they told me that morning so I spent all evening at school correcting absolutely everything. It was worse than report card deadline because at least I had weeks to prepare for that. I don't even know if I cleaned up everything in her room... But I'll be able to talk to her on Monday to straighten out certain things, like why there's a chocolate bar in the drawer, and where I left the records because I sure as hell don't know.

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I'm listening to "Christmas in Heaven" from the Monty Python movie The Meaning of Life, and I think it was probably the most exciting Christmas song at the time. Who wouldn't like to watch a song and dance number with a bunch of topless women? Really. '_'

I still have yet to watch Life of Brian. That could probably count as a Christmas-y theme of a movie, no?

I got home last night and started uncontrollably singing a jazz variation of Jingle Bells everywhere. It must have been due to the supression of all holiday spirit I had to endure during the last few months, not necessarily due to the union's pressure tactics.

When my computer parts come, I'm going to go absolutely INSANE.

Mother, where art thou?

I'm still stuck with just the processor. It's been sitting next to me in its box the whole week and I have yet to decide its mama. I have been looking over SFF cases (small form factor) that look like cubes. Unfortunately I am completely befuddled over a million reviews:

Antec Aria
Plastic and aluminum, cube-like, blue (glowing blue!), cute and currently 113 dollars. No motherboard.

• Advantage: It's quiet and has a lot of potential for upgrading. Has an 8-in-1 card reader included.


• Disadvantage: It's a case that is reputedly warm on running because it's not as well ventilated as it should be. I wouldn't be thrilled either if my power supply unit caught on fire as well. But modders gave it a good rating because you could drill holes in it. (Then again, I have no tools to do so.) Also, it has no floppy drive slot.

Aspire X-Qpack
Plastic and aluminum, cube-like, 3 windows (not the OS), comes in a bunch of colours (that also glow that colour), looks like a box that a mofo gaming pimp would use. 116 dollars. No motherboard.

• Advantage: It tells you what the temperature inside the machine is. And it's got freaking plexi-windows on 3 sides!


• Disadvantage: Seems like it has a pos power supply, but that's only what I read. And who wants to see what kind of crap I installed in my computer anyway?

I already have the motherboard chosen for the purposes of buying only the case, so that's not going to be mulled over.
Asus A8N-VM/CSM Whatever that means. It's currently at 107.99.


And then there's the barebones Shuttle boxes... they all have their own proprietary motherboards, so it's more important for me to consider the upgrading capabilities.

Shuttle XPC SN95G5 (V3)
It's quiet and cool. Currently at 378.55

• Advantage: I like it tons and tons. Its performance garners great reviews. I can carry it in a cute (optional) bag if I wanted to go to LAN parties (which I won't). It has more stuff in it than I will probably use.


• Disadvantage: It's unfortunately limited in terms of upgrading potential, as it doesn't have any PCI-E. It also doesn't have a floppy drive, nor does it have a card reader. It's freaking 400 dollars in total. That's like 2 cheap computers. (I know, quality over quantity.)
  

Shuttle XPC SN25P
Currently at 469.94

• Advantage: It's got 3 PCI-E slots, and 350W of power, compared to the 240W in the other box. It's slightly bigger for more space to manoeuver with parts. Actually, I could just keep listing the specs because they're all good.
  


• Disadvantage: This is the biggy. I have to buy a new hard drive (or SATA/ATA connector), and probably a mess of other new things, more than the other Shuttle box, in order to use this case. Overall it would be the one I'd choose if it wasn't so expensive and if it didn't have so much other stuff to buy. God, I feel like crying when I think about it...
  

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I really, really, really like the Swissbit, but it's ridiculously expensive for a knife and 1 GB of flash memory. So I will resort to getting the Corsair Voyager. Merry Christmas to me!

Happy New Year!

Knowing me, the likelihood of me putting up a post on the day when something happens is close to nil. I tend to forget after the big events and end up posting a huge mass of words that make people forget to read my blog.

Just to reiterate holiday greetings (because I miss them already)... 


I'm back at school since Monday. Today was the actual first day of school for kids, and people haven't changed one bit. ;)

One bit of news that was passed around today was that of a secondary 1 girl from our school having fallen off a roller coaster at the mall on Monday, undergoing surgery today. On another note, a lot of people did not sympathize with her, as she was reportedly "changing seats with her friend" on the curve while it was moving. It is also an amazing feat that she landed on the bumper cars grid while it was not electrified, otherwise this would be an obituary link.

Edit: I took out a sentence due to the fact that I don't think before I write.

Merry Vacation from Me!

I wish everyone a happy holidays, Merry Christmas, Happy Hannukah, hava a "Kwazy Kwanzaa" and all the other holidays going on at the same time. Yes, even Festivus(c).

I sent a number of people different sets of photo greetings. Hope you didn't find them too ugly...

A very considerate and thoughtful secondary 5 student, whose 4 or 5 other siblings also attend the school, brought me this cute gingerbread house. He said it was a tradition in his family for each of them to bring their homeroom teachers a gingerbread house. It was so touching I was almost in tears. :') 

A Requested Wishlist

(Mind you, I'm not the one who wanted to write one in the first place. It's for certain parents-in-law-to-be. And I won't guarantee that the items will be anything serious.)

• A Smart Car! (Silver and blue)


• One of these cuties... if the company isn't just bsing us.


• This book, because I adore Jon Stewart, but not as much as Jorgh. He likes him more.


• The fantastic 102 episodes of the hard-to-come-by anime series, Kodomo no Omocha. Unfortunately it was just licensed by FUNimation and now probably sits on some dusty shelf in the back of an unfrequented room full of licensed anime that the network also won't air. (At least without dubbing.) Manga volumes are already out, but it just isn't the same. :(


• While I'm talking about anime, Excel Saga, or Chobits. Maybe GTO, but I might get disillusioned with teaching afterwards...


• An Athlon 64 system, or at least something that runs a movie properly.


• A certain band , and I don't mean music either. ;) Connected to this, also my wish to kill all furry pr0n.


• A lot of desk space.


• Socks. I hate white socks. I @#$%ing hate white socks.


• A new, happy apartment with no @#$%ing landlord.


• Decent hair.


• A way to deal with a jackass :P


• A mean gene!


• An agenda


• A clue.

Don't forget - that cheesy CBS Christmas special is on Sunday at 9 pm.