In Which: Four More Days, Injury-Prone, Temperature Prevarication, Nerd News.

Monday is almost over - the last Monday at my summer co-op job. After this week, I'm back at university. It's been a really long summer, and it's been a really short summer. I feel like it really wasn't summer at all, except for the bloody heat.
I have sat in an office chair, and I have run around fixing printers. I have imaged computers, and I have wiped computers. I have counted printer pages, and I have swept the floor. I have gotten frustrated with users and computers because Everything is Broken Forever, and I have had the Tech Aura^TM make things magically work (yes, that's a thing. Sort of. It's like the Force. If you have the Tech Aura, all you have to do is look at a computer and it just works).
But this time Friday, I'll be out of here. Feels weird, man.

I did my 5k run on Saturday, with my bestie.
Normally, 5k takes me about 45 minutes. Saturday's run took me 43ish, and that was after walking the last km.
The only reason I walked the last km was that my knees were killing me. Stabbing pain and stuff. My muscles would have been perfectly happy to do the whole damn run, and in (comparatively) very good time, but my joints, my stupid joints. I got across the finish line and then was so mad at my stupid freaking knees that I cried. The First Aid tent people gave me a tensor bandage for the worst knee, and some ice for both. I kept it wrapped all yesterday, and it's still giving me achyness today, so I've got it wrapped again.
Other than that, it was a fun run, in the dark with glowsticks and colourful clothing. So much NEON, my eyes hurt...
And there were two little girls, about 10 and 8, who ran it, and they were troopers. They passed me right at the end. I was vicariously proud of them.

Still trying to figure out the best combination of blankets/window/pajamas to go with the hammock - ideal temperature is hard when you overheat on top and freeze on the bottom. Other than that, I'm still liking it. Because hammock.

In Lizzi's Nerd News, some people on reddit have come up with an idea within the last day: to make a sort of "Usenet 2.0"/"P2Preddit". This was spawned from a thread on a post (on a wart on a frog on a bump on a log... whoops, sorry, got carried away there) on /r/linux about the 22nd anniversary of Linus Torvalds' Usenet post that "started it all".
Another reddit member said this about it:

"An updated usenet wouldn't be a bad thing definitely.
With what else is going on in the world, leaving mass information centralized in the hands of a few government-intertwined corporations probably isn't best for future generations - encryption is a requirement."

Sounds about ideal for my recent tinfoilhattedness. I've signed on to help if I can. Because hey, why not? Plus, if it leaves the ground, it's good to have projects under one's belt when looking for a job. Not that that's my primary motivation - I'm really just interested in the whole thing. So far the noises people are making are in the direction of PGP plus some kind of Web-of-Trust system. So yeah.

That's about it. Toodles.

I'm the Hero of ... Canton? Also, of Windows 7 and Paranoia. Tin-Foil Hats for ALL!

I guess it's been a good two weeks since last I posted. Stuff has happened.

For example, I'm about halfway or a little more through season 5 of Supernatural - yep, still obsessed. Shouldn't be long til I'm starting season 6.

Went with my dad to see Serenity (that's right, the Firefly movie) on the big screen, because the movie theatre does play older cult movies sometimes. They even did Wrath of Khan once. Good times. I went full nerd in my Jayne hat and Blue Sun t-shirt, because why not, and there were others in the theatre also nerded out; one guy even came up and sang the Hero of Canton song at me.
"He robbed from the rich, and he gave to the poor / stood up to the man and he gave him what-for / our love for him now ain't hard to explain / the hero of Canton, the man they call Jayne!"
Someone else told me I looked like an idiot in my hat - but the way he said it, I think he was misquoting the line by Wash: "Man walks down the street in a hat like that, people know he's not afraid of anything!"
Oh nerd people, Y U SO AWKWARD.

Still absolutely happy with my new ear piercings; no regrets here. I might even get another set done at some point - or something else, maybe. Mmmm piercings. I have contemplated doing my septum (nose between nostrils, fyi) but that's a risky one, doesn't always look good on everyone.

At work the IT department as a whole is slowly rolling out Windows 7 (because everyone's still on XP, and Micro$oft is no longer supporting that as of April). It's due to go out to general users in September, but I'm the only person at either of the sites I work at who's even testing it out, because most users here (not including me) use some very elderly proprietary software that's not certified for Win 7 yet, and also because of the Active Directory structure involved. Oy vey. I can definitely see them pushing back the rollout when September finally arrives, due to unpreparedness. It's so going to happen.
The one thing I personally really find frustrating about the situation is that my admin account is still attached to XP, so sometimes I have admin privileges, and sometimes I don't - and there's no rhyme or reason for the back and forth on that one. Yay Active Directory.

On a much more serious note:
I was browsing reddit happily one day not so very long ago when I saw the first few articles about PRISM and the NSA and Edward Snowden, and since then I've been watching for further information, growing gradually more worried about the whole thing as it progresses.
The problem is, while America as a whole likes to hold tightly to the Fourth Amendment, saying that online communications ought to come under the category of things that should not be searched without probable cause, and that's great for them, if that works - and here's the but - there's no such thing in place for Canadians or anyone else who might happen to be elsewhere in the world. In fact, most of our data ends up in datacentres in the States, and the NSA is supposedly specifically looking at non-American communications for terrorists. This should really scare us all. I might even get labelled "terrorist" just for saying that, depending what their criteria are; who knows?
At this point, of course, I have a fuck-tonne of personal information all over the bloody internet, and it'd be really hard (not to mention highly impractical in today's world) to cut myself out of here, especially since I can't clean myself out of their records (not to sound really paranoid or anything, of course) - so I'm probably not going to bother. But still, I do get a little nervous about the entire business.
Anyone else getting worried?

Unrelated: I might start knitting tin-foil hats, if anyone's interested.
Heh.

I swear I'm sane, sometimes...

Toodles all!

Thoughts on the OUYA.

This weekend I catsat for a friend. This friend was generous enough to let me bring my OUYA over and use her tv to try it out - because she does have a nice big tv. As a result, I got several hours to mess around and figure out how it worked and all, and these are my initial thoughts.
_________________

Pairing the controller: fairly easy, though not particularly intuitive, because the button you use isn't obviously a button. It usually reconnects without problem at successive bootups.

Attaching to wifi: not too bad. But the UI for switching from the keyboard to wifi popup is less intuitive than pairing the controller was. Also, it got confused after I logged in as myself, and decided it was no longer attached to the wifi, and wouldn't scan properly. Fortunately, it's Android. All I had to do was turn wifi off and back on again in the settings, and voila. Wifi restored.

The UI in general takes some getting used to, and there's a funny little touchpad in the controller itself, between the left analog stick and the four buttons which, when you put your finger on it, shows up as a mouse on the screen. The GUI is not the greatest - not a fan of the colour scheme, mostly - but the labels and menus are not too hard to understand, though some of the game categories aren't clearly indicative of what they mean. I do wish there was an option in the games menu for "Newest games".

Indeed, most of any beef I have with the OUYA is with the games themselves. Not even with the quality (which, I have to admit, isn't the most amazing ever, but it's definitely tolerable) but with the button mapping and the fact that it's near impossible to properly exit a handful of them.
The button mapping is the biggest problem - in most cases they make sense, but one or two games use the buttons completely differently than any other game, or even the OUYA menu itself. In an OUYA context, usually the A button means "go back". In a few of the games I tried, it does no such thing. If you want to go back you have to press some other button. It's frustrating, but that's just one example.
As far as exiting games, sometimes the only thing you can do is press the center button (the same semi-hidden one I mentioned, for pairing controllers) - similarly to the Home button on an Android phone. As far as I'm aware, that is just like minimising the game, and it's still in the background. I could be wrong. But if that is the case, that's really impractical and simply takes up memory.
I did have a fun time messing around with Final Fantasy III - first time I've played FF of any kind. Yes, I was a sheltered child. But now I have joined the ranks of gamers everywhere. Or something like that, I think.
I also found a puzzle game vaguely reminiscent of Portal, called Polarity; I'm quite looking forward to playing that one through, it looks promising.
Overall game quality was not quite up to playstation/xbox standards, particularly in the graphics department, but I don't find that particularly offputting. I rather found it endearing more than anything. Although some of the games available were in a highly unfinished state, which I found frustrating. The other frustrating thing is the low number of currently available games, but I'm sure more will come.

In summary, I feel like the OUYA is for adult gamers what the Wii is for kids; a fun toy. I don't mean that in a condescending way, what I mean is that it doesn't look like it'll have big shiny expensive games, but it doesn't need those either. It has its share of darker games already, but it still feels much more light-hearted and relaxed. If that even makes sense. It doesn't have any delusions of grandeur - it's got a swingset and hopscotch to play with, and it's happy there.
Also, as someone who hasn't really played video games til now, it was fairly easy to get the hang of, which says they did something right.
And I enjoyed it, too.

So that's my initial impression. I can't wait til I have a proper screen to attach it to, so I can play through Polarity properly.

Toodles!

In Which Lizzi Goes Out Monday Night ....

.... And wakes up Tuesday morning feeling like it's Monday again. But it was worth it.

Last night I went to see Sigur Ros with my friend Amanda. She is a lovely and wonderful person who tolerated my Pathfinder geeking with commendable patience. She also has the most awesome hat in the world. It's like a tiny adorable knitted viking helmet with little nubby horns on it. I was a little jealous of the awesomeness.

The show was out in Burnaby, in a park, outdoors, and because BC is and always will be BC, it rained. The entire time. Well, maybe not the entire time, but for enough of it. We had a blanket to sit on, but the water on the ground went right through that, so I sat on my Bag of Holding (it actually is one: Thinkgeek Bag of Holding) and that kept my backside dryish - at least it did til the Bag got soaked through. Whoops.
I think I had a notebook in one pocket of the Bag too... I should check if that survived. Yeah....
There was one chick wrapped up in a tarp, and other people huddling under umbrellas and donning those cheap plastic ponchos you can get that look like you're wearing a garbage bag - oh, and there were actually people wearing garbage bags too. Gotta do what you gotta do, I guess.
It was also Hipster Central - but I guess, if you're going to see an obscure Icelandic post-rock band, you really shouldn't expect anything else. Oh, the beards and the plaid and the skinny jeans and boots and slouchy hats and scarves. And dear god, all the secondhand pot smoke you could possibly wish for. I'm sure if I'd have tapped on someone's shoulder they would have happily shared a joint with me, but I had no interest in such.

The music, of course, was fabulous. Jonsi Birgisson has a spectacular voice and an impressive set of lungs - he drew out one high note for at least three full minutes. The ethereal noises out of his guitar were glorious, but he absolutely destroyed the horsehair on his bow - and then he played so violently he flung it away behind him by accident on the last song, which amused me greatly.
They did one song where he actually sang the refrain into the guitar pickups - looks utterly idiotic, with your face covered by guitar, but sounds amazing. I haven't been a super major fan of them up to this point, but I may have to listen to them more often. They did do a couple songs I recognised - Glosoli, after the encore, and another one earlier that I can't remember the name of. I wish they could have done Fljotavik, but even without - and despite the rain - the concert was still very very good.
Thank you, Amanda, for bringing me.

The unfortunate part is that for the entirety, my phone was nowhere to be found, even though I was certain that it came with me. So I have no photos or video, even though I was fully planning on taking photos on my brother's behalf (the poor boy was incredibly jealous - he's a fan of obscure music of all sorts, and if it's in another language, even better!). I was mildly anxious for the whole length of the show, but it was not in my bag, not in my pockets, not under the blanket...
So we get back to the car, and it's just quietly sitting in the grass right next to the car, having been rained on, but not having been stolen, and (I hope) not having been permanently ruined. I checked if it would wake up, and it woke up just fine and behaved properly the whole ride home, but once I got it plugged into the charger before I went to bed it went a little sideways on me, and this morning it was still slightly erratic. So I left it home while I went to work, laying in a bowl of rice to dry out. Here's hoping it's okay.

So that was my evening. Today has been run-of-the-mill same-old work stuff - imaging computers, wiping computers (I think I wiped a dozen computers today; Friday, when I'm back at this office, I'll see if I can do eighteen), dealing with user issues. I'm getting better at finding my way around here, I think, which is good.

Also, last and sort of least, burnt my hand yesterday when I was making food to take along to the concert. Just a little burn, but it hurt.

That's it. Toodles!

Happy Monday

So I haven't written a post yet today; I suppose I ought to do that. For SCIENCE .... or something.

It won't be nearly as clever as a sonnet, nor nearly as full of content as the one I did when I came back to this blog, but that's mostly because I had no new revolutionary ideas over the weekend.

I did have a Nerf-gun fight with some friends on Saturday, it was my friend's birthday and he likes to throw Nerf-day parties. Basically we ran around in a park with lots of brightly coloured guns and foam swords, and lost a metric ton of little Nerf darts. It was fairly entertaining.
On Saturday, also, I watched the most recent Doctor Who episode. Besides the bratty kid and her brother, it was a damn good episode - I love Matt Smith's schizophrenic Doctor so very much! I am seriously looking forward to the next episode. Oh man. The one thing I am not looking forward to about next week is that it's the fricken season finale. *sadface* (Note to self: look up "He Said, She Said", the prequel to next week's ep, on youtube.)

I also had a rather wee, somewhat banal, but slightly euphoric epiphany this evening; I live in my own damn house.
I realise that's obvious to most of you, but one of the implications of that concept is that because it's my own damn house, if I feel like moving my pillows and my blanket to the couch and camping in the living room with a movie (or reddit) on my computer on my lap, I can do that. I could even sleep on the freaking couch if I want to. The only reason I haven't, is that old habits die hard (thanks, Mom).
So I'm happily camped under my blanket with a cup of chai tea poured from my charming TARDIS teapot. Because I can. Wheeee!

And that's all for now, folks.

(Did I really just say that? Oh dear. Next thing you know, I'll be saying YOLO...)

Anyhow -

Toodles!

Bombardments

It's been a while.

I could make excuses. I could say how busy I've been. I could, and I could, and I could...

But I think mostly it's because I'm unsure about how best to come back. Is it awkward, after eight months, to just jump back in and say, "Hey guys, it's me again, let me bombard you with my life and thoughts and stuff and things, same as I did ... a whole year ago!"?

Let's pretend, for the sake of argument, that people leaving and coming back without warning is normal and not awkward in the slightest.
So therefore, if that's the case, you may, if you wish, sit back with a nice cup of Tea Earl Grey Hot, and prepare yourself for a nice, calming, chilled-out:

"HEY GUYS, IT'S ME AGAIN, LET ME BOMBARD YOU WITH MY LIFE AND THOUGHTS AND STUFF AND THINGS, SAME AS I DID A WHOLE YEAR AGO."

Following that theme, in recent news (so that I don't alarm you unduly with references to things that happened that you didn't previously know about):

• I sang backing vocals with a symphonic metal band for two live shows (one in December, one in April) and it was fantastic: http://www.leahthemusic.com/
• I started playing Pathfinder, the D&D-like role-playing game. I play in two campaigns: one, as a skill-monkey half-elf rogue/ranger who speaks in a Scottish accent - and the other, as a dumb-as-a-post half-orc barbarian named Thump whose two obsessions are things that are Shiny, and things that can be thumped, such as goblins.
• (I'm surprised it took me this long to discover role-playing games - SO MUCH FUN.)
• I just finished my second year at university studying Computer Information Systems, and I've just started my second term as President of the Computer Information Systems Student Association. I've also just started my first Co-op work term: I get school credit for it, and work experience in my field, AND I get paid for it, all of which make me reasonably happy.
• I got a new tattoo in April, bringing my total tattoos up to four, if you count the teensy stick-and-poke I did on my own hip four years ago. The new one is on the inside of my bicep, is in Latin, and says: "Sed et si monti huic dixeritis: Tolle et jacta te in mare, fiet." Translated: "But if you say to this mountain: Get up and cast yourself into the sea, it will be done." Found in Matthew 21:21, for the curious.
• I'm still at my wonderful little basement suite, and I couldn't be happier with where I'm living. Even the occasional noise of the tenants upstairs doesn't bother me.
• I've completely caught up on Doctor Who, at last, and I've been watching the current episodes as they come out, which has been great fun. I do love Clara with the Doctor. They have such great chemistry.
• Speaking of TV shows, I've been watching NCIS and Castle as per usual, but on my dad's recommendation I've just started a new one, it's called Continuum. A cop from 2077 accidentally gets dumped into Vancouver in 2012 along with a terrorist group called Liber8. It's pretty good so far, but I'm only about halfway through the first season still.

 So there; I have accomplished my bombardments and my return. It wasn't too painful, was it?

But don't worry, you'll be hearing from me again, hopefully in reasonably short order.

Toodles!

the trouble with.... a tribble?

so yesterday i went to the PNE for the first time in my life. actually, i did a bunch of firsts yesterday.

the PNE, taken on the whole, was a fun and entertaining novelty experience, but i would have no desire to go multiple times in one year, it would get overwhelming and such.

i also went on a rollercoaster for the first time ever; i went on the wooden one and spent most of it clinging desperately to the bar because i would totally have flown out of my seat otherwise, what with me being so light.

and a ferris wheel, which went surprisingly faster than it looks like it does from the ground, that was fun.

among other entertaining rides. i didn't do any SUPER crazy ones, simply because i really am not an adrenaline junkie, and i just can't handle those ones yet. like the twin flip and the hellevator and similar terrifying things.

but the best part, and the part that made the entry fee totally worth it: the star trek exhibition. where i was not allowed to take photos. :(
they had all kinds of outfits on mannequins in glass cases - they had spock's uniform, and the white robe he wears in "a voyage home", they had one of guinan's outfits, and picard's uniform, and data's, they had both uhura's uniforms, TOS and the new movie, they had neelix's outfit, they had romulan and reman uniforms, they had khan's torn-up outfit, and they had seven of nine's uniform as well. i kind of fangirled all over the place.
never mind the models of alien's heads, and data's head too, and phasers of all kinds, and the PADDs, and the tricorders, and they had a freaking bat'leth too. there were ship models, and a replica of picard's rooms with a section of hallway right in front.
and they also had a couple of photo ops - one on the bridge of the enterprise, TNG era, one on a transporter array, and there was one with a greenscreen but i don't know what they put behind it.
i bought a photo of me on the bridge. i know, i know. but i had to.
i also bought a pin with data's face on it, and a tribble. yes, i HAD TO. what a foolish question.

so yeah. yesterday: success.

SQUEEEEEE!!

... as you can see, i am all full of fangirl squeals and geeking-out grins.

because *I* got to take some photos of the *EUREKA* series finale which they are filming in my town today - and not only photos OF, but photos WITH.

oh happy day :)

3/14 ...

march 14th is Pi Day! go eat piiiiiiiie.
[i'm such a geek.]

so i did the thirty day challenge - successfully, i might add, all 30 in a row with only one or two late posts. but now i don't know what to do with myself.
i have no poems floating around in my head at the moment.
i have no awesome photos to share.
and nothing super-duper interesting has happened lately.
besides the two random customers (both guys - coincidence? mmm probably not.) that have given me their phone numbers. THAT'S slightly disturbing. particularly as one of them is - well - probably as old as my dad. and i likely WON'T be calling him. he's a customer. that alone makes it weird. ah well.

the thing is, most of my day is centered around SLEEP. i spend all day sleeping, and all night working. my evening is mostly cooking.
so there's not much to tell, mostly.
i have the odd moment - like the day my coworker went to the drivethru window and informed the waiting customer that he had just finished devouring a soul, and that it tasted like lemon - but mostly my life is sleep.

speaking of which - it's approximately bedtime.
also - i must go shopping soon. maybe tomorrow. the pantry's looking bare.

some saturday musings

so i figure i ought to chuckle at the irony of this - i start to get annoyed when blogs i follow don't post for a while .... and then i sit and don't post either.
so i guess i'll subject you all to another blurb about me!

i think i must be a real vampire. night shift (also known, appropriately enough, as the "graveyard" shift), i have discovered, suits me down to the ground. my sleeping pattern adjusted just fine, i like the flexibility of having my mornings open, and yeah. it works for me.
i've actually found myself wondering why people are out so early in the morning - and then realising it's nine o'clock pm.


speaking of vampirishness - i am kind of sort of leaning towards the possibility of maybe, just maybe ... building myself a coffin-shaped bed? cos it would be epic win and it would make me happy to the bottom of my little black gothy heart. so there.
as it is, i am most definitely putting black fabricky curtainy drapeyness in my new room (that i'm moving into on the 29th - YEAH) - especially if i stay on graveyards, imma need something to block light so i can sleep. particularly in summer.

and speaking of people who sleep in coffins, i decided i needed to watch all the old NCIS seasons that i hadn't watched before (because i think i started with season 5 or 6, i'm not quite sure which) so i have a lot to catch up on. and Abby Sciuto is still my favourite character ever.
... she sleeps in a coffin.
in case you hadn't made the connection.

oh and i acquired a brown coat.... thrift stores ftw. now i too can be a Space Pirate.
... now i just need to get my Jayne hat back. have you fixed it yet, mom?

and i'm also rapidly approaching my 200th post - and in a couple months' time, two years on this blog.

anyhow. think that's about it for now.
toodles, all.

it was christmas?

and so another christmas has come and gone - which means that my blog is approaching two years old now, come march. and it also means that i got christmas presents. the most exciting of which include:

and...

 ... the Dreamy Diana Lens at the Photojojo Store

as well as...

... and various other pieces, including, but not limited to, a burt's bees lip balm, two necklaces, a book about U2, various chocolates, two christmas activity books (mom's idea of a joke?), and a book about good decisions from one of my grandmothers.

altogether, it was a good christmas. lots of time with the family and stuff.

oh yeah and i have another wisdom tooth coming in. ugh.

because i have now found a practical way to post blogs without a computer :)

... i can email blogs to you lot on my phone! win!

so. guess what i did last night?
went to see the new harry potter movie - in the new galaxy theatre in chilliwack, the one that's next to the superwalmart. and was it good?
Oh. My. Gosh. it was freaking fantastically Epic Win. i've been annoyed with some of the previous movies and their so-called adaptations - but this one was the closest to the book of any of the other ones, AND it was a good movie. everyone laughed at all the right parts, and clapped after dobby's speech, and so on. and it was generally just brilliant. the end.

also - snow in the fraser valley in november? unheard of.

boxes boxes boxes boxes boxes boxes going crazy boxes boxes boxes.

further updates on the moving:

so close to done being packed, you might as well say i am packed.
at present i'm in the stage of "this room has dust in every corner you can think of and it's really embarrassing so i think i will move the furniture around and vacuum it properly."

also, this week seems to be the week for interviews. first superstore on wednesday, and then tim hortons on friday. so i'll be out there for 9.30 tomorrow morning.

and i am taking photos of my room in progress of being packed (of course i am! i take photos of EVERYTHING!) so i'll be popping those up on my flickr and making a mosaic for y'all in the next little while - it may take some time cos of i don't know what internet access will be like for me. but at some point you can all see the evolution of room from clutter to box.

in other news, my hair is driving me up the fucking wall. i'm trying (TRYing being the operative word here) to grow it out - and at present it's in that stupid and awkward stage where it's too long to look cute, but too short to stick in a ponytail, and DEFINITELY too short to look good down. if it weren't that i'm actually growing it out on purpose, i would take the clippers and shave it down again. cos this is very annoying, and i can't imagine what possessed me to cut it. ever. argh. don't you love when you do something and then you regret it after? i know *I* do.

anyways, bedtime. have to get some rest before my interview. otherwise i'll not be entirely awake, and i'll pull a Jayne - "we applied the cortical electrodes, but were unable to get a neural response!"
night, all! ♥

14th of march....

happy Pi day, everyone!