Driver's Ed

Last night, a brief but nasty storm inevitably left a couple traffic signals on flash mode.

Pop quiz, hotshot: If you're approaching a traffic light that's flashing yellow (amber) do you...
a) proceed through the intersection with caution or
b) treat the intersection as an all-way stop?

If you said a), congratulations and thank you. If you said b), you are like all the other drivers I saw on the road last night. Learn the rules, people! You're mixing this up with when the power is out completely and there are no lights on. I driving along Univerisity Ave, and the lights at Seagram (the entrance of UW) are on flash. There's about 10 cars in front of me, and they all come to a complete stop while we had the flashing yellow, even though there was no one waiting on Seagram. Then a car came to a stop on Seagram and the people in front of me stopped and let him go first. Quite frustrating... there's wasn't that much traffic, so he'd only have to wait another 10 seconds.

Treat it like a (non all-way) stop sign.

Don't believe me? Take a refresher course from the Driver's Handbook.

The Second Season

Most of us have been taught that there are four seasons: Winter, Spring, Summer, and Autumn. But I'm here to tell you that all of you have been misled. In a vast conspiracy of misinformation with the intent to confuse the general population, a four season universe has been forced upon us. I don't fully understand the motivation for the conspirators... profit, perhaps... power, maybe... women, you never know... free candy, most likely... but whatever the reason, I'm here to blow this thing wide open. Prepare yourselves, for I have seen the truth! It struck me today... there are only two seasons: Hard-top and Soft-top. And today marked the first day of Soft-top.

Im Iliterit

I made a big step towards reducing the waste in my apartment. I cancelled my subscription to the KW Record. Truth is, I wasn't really reading it everyday (except for the comics) and it piled up really fast, which made my trips down to the recycling room more often than I want. The bonus is that the Record is offered online in full in pdf format for a 1/4 of the cost of delivery. So, I may go with that... since it goes so well with my tallscreen monitor.

This is riveting stuff here, folks.

New Toy!

After almost a year of reading reviews, researching features, and deciding if I actually want to spend money, I finally bought myself a new video camera... A Canon HV20. This particular model is a high-definition camcorder. It took me a while to realize I should go with the HD instead of the SD... and I'm not disappointed. I got to test it out this afternoon at a BBQ at Dan and Faith's. It's about 2 minutes of recording meat on the grill and a baby being humourously fed. But the image is spectacular. Unfortunately, I don't have the firewire cord to get the clips onto my computer or the necessary harddrive space... yet. So, there's no sample to show you and you'll just have to take my word for it. Now all I need are some good ideas to use it for.

Shaun Of The Dead

Who did I lend out my DVD of Shaun of the Dead to? I was looking for it today and I couldn't find it. Then I vaguely recalled lending it out to someone, but I didn't write down who.

Anybody?

(May 3 update) It's been located

Double TP

Are you pondering what I'm pondering?

Instead of buying the usual noname 2-ply toilet paper, I went out on a limb and bought the noname 2-ply DOUBLE ROLL toilet paper. It would seem to me that this roll would last twice as long as the other stuff. But it's so very hard to tell. I haven't taken a stop watch to it yet. I must find out whether or not I'm getting the biggest TP bang for my TP buck.

I feel a totally scientific experiment coming on.

It Seems Really Dry In Here

There seems to be a lack of water in my apartment these days... a lack of water flooding my kitchen. While I was gone to Atlanta last week, the super in my apartment finally got a plumber in to fix the water leak that was happening above my sink-area. They took out a piece of pipe that is the hard-water line to the apartments above me. It turns out that that pipe was indeed the problem (we really weren't sure, we were just guessing) as it had a small crack which was causing the problem. I got to see the removed piece of pipe myself when I got back and the super was telling me about how there are basically two types of pipes that could have been installed (I didn't pay too much attention to the detail), but it seems that the leaky pipe was of the cheaper, lower-quality type... and that's what was used to fit the entire building back when it was built back in the 70's. So while this chapter is done, look for the coming sequel... Water Leak 2: The Walls Are Weeping. Hopefully in a different apartment than mine.

I've gotta buy a house.

2 New Items For The Price Of 1 Post

I recently bought myself a new webcam. My old one was, well... old, and it didn't fit on my new LCD monitor.

I also got my new glasses today (finally). They're not too much different from my old one, shape-wise, But they're a little wider, so the arms aren't pinching the side of my head as much.

So, with my new webcam, I took a picture of me with my new glasses (how's that for efficiency?). What do you think?

Atlanta Post Transistioning Into Curling Post

I finished up my Vissim class on Friday, and made my way back to the airport via subway (I still didn't get mugged... go figure). My flight was delayed by an hour and I had a raging headache while waiting for the plane. It was probably a combination of dehydration, hunger, and staring at a computer all day. I broke down finally and bought some crappy airport Burger King, some tylenol, and a bottle of water. The tylenol only partially got rid of my headache and the drinking made me have to pee really bad when I was on the plane. Other than that, it was another great flight. I'm loving those video-on-demand touchscreens. This time I watched a movie called "For Your Consideration", but I didn't like it that much. Plus, they turned off the video with five minutes to go in the movie for landing, so I didn't get to see if there was any payoff.

I got back early Saturday morning (1:30am) and was able to make my afternoon curling game. (I went from Atlanta to Curling in one single post... I hope you can handle it, Tim)

It was our consolation game as my team lost it's first playoff game on Thursday (while I was away). Again, we lost. However, personally, I think I played a pretty decent game... my draw weight was pretty on for not playing in more than a week. But anyway, this game marked the end of the season... so no more curling until October. I know, I know... be brave and just try to hold on.

Atlanta: Day 2

Current Status: Being killed... with kindness

This morning I got up after not sleeping very much. I don't know why exactly, but I never can seem to get to sleep the day before I do something that's out of my routine... especially when it involves being on time for something. Anyway, the hotel provides a free shuttle service, so I went down to the lobby with lots of time to spare until the 8am shuttle left. The lady at the reception desk said that the driver will come into the lobby and see who needs a ride. Well, I waited until 8 in the lobby, and then decided to check out front... and sure enough, the shuttle was about to leave without checking in the lobby. Oh well, I made it on time.

The course itself is nothing much special. It's just learning a new kind of traffic simulation software. However, it's needed as this software is quite complicated to operate.

After getting back to the hotel after class, I went out to look for a restaurant for dinner and I came across Fuddruckers, which is next door to the hotel. They advertise the world's best burger, and to tell the truth it was quite good. The setup is a little weird though... kind of a cross between fast food and a casual restaurant. You order your burger like you would at a fast food joint, but then you have a seat in the dining room while they cook it up. Then they call your name and you pick it up and put your toppings on yourself. Then you go back and eat in the restaurant style dining room. Interesting to say the least.

Then I went to the Best Buy next door, just to see what was there. Not any different from our Best Buy in Canada. But this is where I discovered that the people down here are the some of the friendliest y'all will ever meet. First, this guy asks me a question... but I have no idea what he's saying. I think he thought that he knew me from university. So I said "no", and when I told him I was from Canada, he toned down the accent for me. Then another guy struck up a conversation with me while looking at the PS2 game and we chatted it up for a good 10 minutes. Turns out he was an engineer as well, so it's not surprising that he was a good guy. But anyway, we're a friendly and polite people in Canada, but in a different way. These people are freakishly outgoingly friendly. It's nice, but I'm sure it'd wear on me after a little while.

Oh yeah, it was 21° and sunny today, and tommorrow, it's supposed to be pretty much the same. The weather break is well worth the price of the plane ticket and hotel... that work paid for me.