I’m worried that Evildeb does not know about the Gorgeous Tiny Chicken Machine Show. It’s everything she would like. I worry about her, out there in the world, without me.
This one has Wil Wheaton.
Monthly Archives: May 2008
New Downtown Vancouver Apple Store
On Monday we went down to see the new Vancouver Apple Store. Wil had never been to one. And I never miss and opportunity to surround myself with Appley goodness. Well, sometimes I do. We had planned on getting up early on Saturday, which was the Grand Opening. We were going to get in line with all the apple geeks, and hopefully get one of the free t-shirts given out to the first 1,000 people. Because that is just the kinda Apple whore I am. However, I am also the type of Apple whore who likes to sleep in, so it didn’t happen.
This is the 5th Apple store in Canada. Three of them are in Toronto and the fourth is in Quebec. So, finally some west coast Apple love. And here is my official in-depth review of the Apple Store. Are you ready?
It’s bigger than the store in Bellevue Square, smaller than the University Village and NYC stores. It might have been my imagination, but I think it had a slightly smaller selection of software than the stores I have visited previously, but a wonderfully large selection of iPod cases, covers and such. Including some fabulous Paul Frank stuff.
And that’s about it. What did you expect? Ok, it’s gorgeous. But all the Apple stores are gorgeous. I was thrilled to be able to play with an iPod touch with wifi connection. It was good practice for when I get my iPhone. (Oh god, I need one more than ever.) I pulled up my blog on the browser, but I was too chicken to leave it up there for the next shopper. I should have. I suck at self promotion.
I was sorely tempted to by a Time Capsule, but wanted to do more research. Which, I have completed and now know for sure we NEEED one. I had no idea that a Time Capsule could act as a router. I would have purchased one last winter when our Airport Express died. I’m a big fan of back-ups, having lost stuff before. Not to mention Wil’s PowerBook is slowly dying, it would be upsetting to lose everything. ( It used to be my PowerBook and I was hard on it. I dropped it on it’s head several times. )
Speaking of Wil’s PB, we took time to play with a black MacBook and confirmed what we already know – that’s the laptop Wil wants when the PB is gone. Actually, he wants it before the PB is dead. He wants it now. He is starting to run into where he can’t use software because he is not Mactel. Like iLife 08, for example.
We didn’t stay very long. It was pretty crowded and someone wasn’t feeling very well. So we went home and built a fort, with pillows and blankets, on the couch and watched the rest of Angel Season 5 on DVD. And ate sammichs.
Finishing my thought
Yesterday, I made a little footnote asterisk. I do that because sometimes a word or sentence will make me want to lose track. Go off on a tangent. However, I failed to complete my little thought down below. I feel …. incomplete. So here, a day later, is the oh so important digression.
I can’t always remember when something happened, and I often look it up on my blog.*
*Without my blog, and chat transcripts, I would have been unable to answer a lot of the Sponsor Relationship Questionnaire for Immigration, in fact.
Well, that hardly seemed worth it a day later.
Man, all you guys are seriously trying to make me switch to WordPress, aren’t you? Maybe it’s time to test it out again. Maybe.
Me and MovableType 4.x
Several weeks ago, I upgraded my version of MovableType to 4.1something. And, once I finally figured out how to edit some config file properly, it’s been fine. Except for searches. The search field on my blog no longer works. And believe it or not, this is important to me. I can’t always remember when something happened, and I often look it up on my blog.*
There is usually something, with each release, which prompts me to redo my style sheets according to whatever new crazy format they use at the time. It can take a while, but I can usually figure it out, and I end up feeling pretty smart about the whole thing as well. But with 4.x everything is different. It’s not just the style sheets, it’s the whole new template structure. It’s simply beyond my ken. I’m not geek enough to figure out how to move all my content over into the new structure, and change the style sheet to look like I want it to, with my newly mocked out design.
It’s gotten to the point where I warn Wil I am going to work on it, and he knows not to worry when I start yelling “What the FUCK? Where did all the sidebars go? I CHANGED NOTHING! For fuck’s sake!” It makes me so crabby.
On the one hand, I really really want to figure it out. I will feel so shiny and brilliant if I can. Not to mention, I truly do love MovableType, and Six Apart products as well. One only has to look at the Vox blogging system to realize how adorable blogging can be, thanks to these guys. Not to mention TypePad. They are just cool. I’d be all over TypePad, but I don’t need a hosted service.
I’ve been using MT since I started blogging almost six years ago. I like it. I don’t want to leave it.
But for pity’s sake, it’s going to make me crazy. Almost every blogger I’ve met, or that I read, who lives here in the Vancouver area uses WordPress. So much so I figured it had to be made here, but I guess it’s just gotten really popular in the last couple of years. I’ve thought about it. It appears I would have to install a copy for each blog I want to have, and I’m not sure I like that idea. But it’s tempting to know that there are more resources available to me out there for help with WordPress.
I’m going to keep plugging away at it. For now.
Trailer for the new Joss Whedon show
Had to share. It looks kick ass. Cannot wait.
Comments seem to be broken
And I am not sure why. I have made no changes since the last time someone commented successfully.
Bummer.
You can’t take something off the Internet. It’s like taking pee out of a swimming pool.
I did something today that I have been threatening to do for months. Years, actually. I started swimming lessons. Swimming is the only physical activity I have ever truly loved.
Now, I know how to swim. I’ve been jumping in pools since I was a wee tyke, according to my mother. But I haven’t had swim lessons since I was a kid. I know my form is probably somewhere in the “spaz” range, so I thought I would take lessons. Be all swift like a fishy, and swim laps during the daytime adult lap swim.
Good lord, that sounds like an exercise plan. Armageddon arriving shortly.
My first lesson was this evening and it was AWESOME. Almost instantly I felt all the tightness and tension in my neck and shoulders protesting. Not in a “ouch this hurts you’d better stop that this instant way.” But more in a “hey, if you keep this up we might not stick around” way.
AWESOME, oui?
Since I enjoyed it so much, this means I get to go out and buy accessories. I bought a suit a couple of months ago. But now I’m going to get some goggles, and I think I am going to get a swim cap because, even in a pony tail, my hair keeps getting in my face. Oh and a sassy bag to carry my equipment in and probably a special towel JUST FOR SWIMMING. Oh, and that shampoo that gets chlorine out of your hair. I need that.
Because I’m a swimmer now.
GTA = Good Times Always
Some of you asked if there was not a game I could play to occupy myself while Wm plays the GTA 4. The truth is, about two weeks before the game came out, I went through a brief Sims2 phase. Happens from time to time. It was stupid. I should have held off. It only lasts about 2 weeks. If I had only waited until GTA came out. I’m still playing, but it feels forced.
The majority of the time Wil plays, I am sitting in my corner of the couch either reading or watching him play. The story line of this game is actually very rich and intriguing. I get kinda caught up in that. And, it seems it’s more fun if I am there to watch, in fact, sometimes it seems necessary. I enjoy following the missions and seeing what unfolds as he completes each one. The game is gorgeous and I love seeing the new territories as he unlocks them. Also, I’m in charge of outfits. That’s a general rule for all video games. If there are outfit changes, I am in charge of picking them out.
But there is another approach to playing the game in which I don’t have much interest. We call it Going On A Rampage.
Me: Honey, what are you doing? Why did you shoot that guy in the face?
Wm: He pushed me. I have a rep to protect.
Me: But that was completely unnecessary. Oh now look what you’ve done, the police are here. You are going to have to lose your wanted level and you’ll be late for your date with Kate.
Wm: It’s no big deal, I’ll out run them in 2 seconds.
Me: You’d better call her and reschedule. She’s going to be mad.
Wm: It’s all good.
Me: Oh now look what you’ve done! Shooting at the police from your car is not helping. Kate is going to be so mad. Is it necessary to smash into every other car on the road?
Wm: Yes. Yes it is. Because we are GOING ON A RAMPAGE!!
Me: sigh.
I can see why it would be fun to Go On A Rampage if you were playing the game. I’m just saying it’s not as interesting to me to watch. That’s all.
The other day Wil handed the controller to me and told me to just “drive to Manny’s while I go the bathroom.”
I told him it was a bad idea. I don’t know what I was trying to do, maybe turn left, I don’t know how to work the controls for this game, but what I actually did was stick my gun out the window and start shooting. At cops. Naturally a chase ensued, and with my complete lack of GTA driving skill, I managed a head on collision so massive that it sent me flying out the windshield, over a wall and onto some docks. Nowhere near any cars to to steal, like I even knew how to do that in the first place. So I panicked and started running amuck, trying to get away from the police. Only I accidentally went into a “crouch” and could not get out of it. So I was actually Creeping Away from the cops. Will comes back just when I am being arrested. Because I was arrested and not killed in a shootout or something, Wil lost all the weapons he had been collecting up to that point.
I TOLD him it was a bad idea. Just drive to Manny’s indeed.
Vs.
A few weeks ago I was buying some books at Chapters, using my WaMu MasterCard card. My wallet was open, on the counter, and the bookseller could see my driver’s license. He noticed I was from the states. Usually, when retailers notice this, they ask me if I am visiting. When I tell them I live here now, they ask me how I like it, etc. This guy asked me something completely different, and it rendered me speechless for a moment.
“So, do you like it better up here?”
Uhh… how to answer that politely. Because, let’s face, I am Canada’s house guest, and I don’t want to offend. And the truth is, no, I don’t.
To be fair, this is not a US vs. Canada issue. Or a Seattle vs. Vancouver issues. This is a Seattle vs. everywhere else on the planet issue. And no one has got a chance of beating it. Of all the places in the world, I love none so much as I love Seattle. I have never found another place that makes me feel like I am “home,” like Seattle. It fits me.
It just so happens I found someone I love more than I love Seattle. And so here I am. And it’s great. I do like it up here.
First of all, Seattle and Vancouver? Not that different. Or at least similar enough to suit me.
And living in a country that truly does consider all men created equal, allowing anyone to get married, not just the heterosexuals? AWESOME. Even though I am not looking to marry a woman anytime soon, I can’t help but feel that Canada is the enlightened one on this continent. (Really, U.S., it’s embarrassing, we have to start taking those “self evident” truths more seriously. In all manners of speaking.)
Thirdly, wheat thins taste better here*. They do, I don’t know why. They are crispier. Taste more baked than fried. Bring me a box of US Wheat Thins and we’ll have a taste test at my house. I will make you some cream cheese and Pickapeppa sauce dip, but you have to bring the Pickapeppa sauce, because I can’t find it here.
One of my favorite things? Skytrain. I WISH Seattle had something like the Skytrain.
I hear the beer is better here, which really does not matter to me, but I have to give it props for that. However, don’t get me started on the price of gas. No, don’t. Because I was listing off things I like about Canada.
So like it better? No. But I like it just fine.
*things really do taste different. Conversely, Double Stuff Oreos do not taste good. I’m sorry, the “stuff” is weird up here.