Terradyme: Trials and Tribulations

I just got off the phone with FirstUnion. I have always had superb customer service when dealing with them over the phone, but not so much luck in person or online. I had meant to order some British pounds for my trip, and thought I might have left it too late. In fact, they offer a two day airborne express service and I was able to order 50 pounds for just over $75 -- the exchange rate has been quite favorable.

50 pounds may not seem like much to take but I have had great success on past trips by taking my ATM card to withdraw money (and get that day's exchange rate without a Bureau de Change surcharge) as needed. I don't think I've used traveller's checks in over a decade.
1/30/2002 07:34:00 PM

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Checking on the comments, now. Hooray! They seem to work!
1/30/2002 04:56:00 PM

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Waugh! I am an atrocious speller!
1/30/2002 03:37:00 AM

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Finally I seem to have the archives link working, at least for the moment.

I called in sick yesterday. Didn't sleep well Sunday night (what's new) and had alot on the mind. Decided to package up the Rio500 and my old Apple Newton, which had just been auctioned off on ebay, and headed to the post office. It was a beaut of a day, not a record but still up there around 70. Tried my hand at Premiere but got very frustrated at its anti-intuitive editing methodology (at least, it wasn't intuitive to me, but then again I'm an ISTJ). I still haven't successfully burned a VCD.

Decided to spend the evening looking for some british sites which might have discussion groups similar to atkol. Just general, how do you do, what's your opinion on, oh you simply must see -- that sort of thing. Came up blank, only chats and personals to be found. I decided to email Dave at swishcottage to ask for his wisdom and guidance.

In to work today and found out that both Patrick and John had called in sick as well. Had a short talk with manager #3 about whether others should be allowed to dump their work on me (I don't know the slightest thing about VPN on a Mac).

Had a very nice note from Dave after lunch and decided to spruce things up a bit around here before having company over, ergo my two hour long struggle with archives.
1/30/2002 01:18:00 AM

Monday, January 28, 2002
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Lazy doesn't even begin to describe the weekend.

I can't even tell you what I spent three days doing. A quick trip to Lambda Rising at Dupont Circle for the December mag which they finally had in stock and then out to Pentagon City yesterday to turn in my Abercrombie & Fitch gift certificate (towards yet another sweatshirt) took up most of the day yesterday.

Read an interesting article in the mag about Seasonal Affective Disorder, which I hadn't really thought about (in fact I was pleasantly surprised to note the sun was still up at 5pm Sunday), but perhaps I do have some of the symptoms: lethargy, difficulty concentrating, and a sweet tooth.

Finished the second Sex and the City DVD, and I am SatC'd out. Very silly theme song, stuck in my brain. Also almost nearly through the end of the QaF first season on DVD. I'm not really getting my money's worth for the Netflix subscription this month.

Took all day today to set up the Dazzle video capture board and run my initial foray. I am trying to digitize my VHS tapes so I can get rid of them on ebay and not have so much junk to move. WinXP makes it harder than it really should be, but I don't have near enough space on the Mac Powerbook.

Talked to both Ainsley and Mom, on separate occasions. Just chit chat, no real news, but that's fine, too.

Feeling very disgusted and lethargic. But very happy to only have two more weeks (10 business days) of work before the vacation.
1/28/2002 04:36:00 AM

Friday, January 25, 2002
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Well, today I am officially long playing, an LP: 33 1/3. Years old, that is. Didn't realize it quite until I had a conversation with Dave G at work today about how my brother and I used to celebrate half birthdays. I used to take it so far as to bake half a cake and have half the requisite number of candles. Didn't get many half presents, sad to say. 33 1/3 would be something if you think of it as a third of a 100 year lifespan, but kind of sad when you realize it's actually probably half the typical 67 years an american male spends on the planet.

Fixed up Carol's Receiver/VCR/TV/CD Player/DVD Player and multiple speaker system, after many trials and tribulations. Her receiver is naff & has no video ports, so I had to seriously make shift. 3 hours should have been one.

Blah blah work day, but we did have the second Mac Refresh kickoff meeting. We are apparently obliged to replace all the Mac desktops and laptops in the Agency. I put in some specs for hardware and software that should be purchased, but didn't remind anyone that I'll be out for two weeks next month.

A voice mail message from Ainsley! Huzzah!

Feeling very full and sluggish and poorly this evening; aching sore legs and a bit of headache. Don't know why.

Fresh start tomorrow, for sure, with four months to the day till Dan's wedding and eight till my 34th. Not the half, don't you know. Looking forward to a lazy lazy weekend.
1/25/2002 04:51:00 AM

Wednesday, January 23, 2002
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I've decided to just about completely redo yesterday's entire post. Not quite sure why I'm displeased with it, but it's got to go.

Monday, the holiday, wiped Leo's Dell laptop and loaded WinXP Pro, then officially began the "it's all about ME" day. I metro'd to Pentagon City to get some CD-Rs for my VCDs, and to look for a copy of the new Anne McCaffrey paperback (needed for the trip). Also I had meant to bring along my A&F gift certificate that Cathy's sister sent me for Christmas, but didn't.

Back by four thirty in time to meet Leo & hand over the Dell, then a quick Chinese take-away (my favourite and only, Sweet & Sour Chicken), an hour long fru-fru bath with candles & bubbles & Enya (inspired by a recent Friends episode w/ Chandler), and an early night to bed reading.

I did actually speak to Dan on the phone, very briefly, with not much to say as everyone had decided to forward everyone else's emails so all are caught up on wedding & other news.

Nondescript work. My work group, CSS TS, went home early, and I was done by 5pm. I'm supposed to be heading out to Carol Lane's house tomorrow to set up her stereo. And that's the LAST of the technical support.

Already, looking forward to the weekend. Need to catch up on my sleep, big time.
1/23/2002 02:38:00 PM

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This post intentionally left blank.
1/23/2002 03:39:00 AM

Monday, January 21, 2002
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I should call up Ms. Cleo and offer my services: I was right, Art's stuff is still here, though technically it's because of an act of God. For the first time in what seems like forever the weathermen were spot on, and a half foot of the powdery white stuff fell on us yesterday morning, the first snow of the season. As it turns out, with Rob taking five people and their bags up to Philly, there probably wouldn't have been room for Art's stuff. And also as it turns out, Art may be down here himself next weekend.

Two hours of dental hell on Thursday. And I pay for this?

This seems to be the weekend of computer service/repair/tech support. Rob asked me to wipe and load his Dell laptop and I had a hell of a time getting a modem driver for it (the laptop not having a floppy drive and the modem a 3rd party Gateway ex-supported PC Card). Done, but not picked up. Today, Dad asked me out to his place to make sure Comcast doesn't dick him over when they transfer him from the ex-supported @Home broadband service. Also replaced ink cartridges, updated virus defs, etc. (Hooked up the DVD player I got him for Christmas while I was there). Tomorrow Leo is bringing his backup Dell laptop by to wipe & load WinXP (his Toshiba decided not to play nicely anymore & will have to go in the shop). And I myself spent the last two days backing up data, wiping the Compaq at home, and reloading essential software. I'm still in the process of merging mail stores, but hope to have that done this week.

I had to go in to work for 3 hours in the a.m. yesterday, for network maintenance, after which time the snow was making its presence felt. A cocoon day for the most part, with a short excursion at 10 to go see a charming French movie at Ballston, Amelie. Go See. Made me think about a recent blog entry I'd read where the idea of going to see a movie (or traveling) on one's own was looked upon with derision and fear. I've never had a problem with it (in fact, I just about prefer it -- a longstanding "non-joke" w/Ains is that I detest discussing a movie just after having seen it).

Dinner/movie Saturday night with Dad and the Boivins was postponed due to the inclement weather.

Dan and/or Ainsley have forwarded a ton of email which have caught us all up on wedding plans. Still no face-a-face communication, but everyone's busy and tired and sick.
1/21/2002 04:20:00 AM

Thursday, January 17, 2002
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Four days...

and not much to tell. Pretty much obsessed with getting the rest of Art's stuff (clothes, books, CDs) back to him: my place is just too small. To that end, Rob K has offered to drive stuff up with him to Philly on Saturday. We'll see how well that works out; I think there are too many variables.

I'm off to the dentist in a few. Dr. Partrick and Susan, just across the courtyard from my office, have been tending my dental needs for the past two months. A good chunk of change, with a root canal, tooth extraction, crown, and now a few cavities to fill.

Ainsley wrote, a two sentence email. No word from Dan since we played tag on Saturday.

Yesterday met Steve at Macaroni Grill, ostensibly to talk about London plans. Saturday will be movie/dinner night with Dad and the Boivins, as Cathie wanted to take him to see Gosford Park which is getting really good reviews. Unfortunately I have to do network maintenance at work in the a.m.
1/17/2002 06:48:00 PM

Monday, January 14, 2002
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A very very blah weekend.

It started off well, all things considered. I'd recovered (mostly) from a visit to Dr. Partrick's on Thursday, with only a half dozen cavities to fill in the next few weeks, and an aggressively thorough demonstration on proper flossing techniques. I really was looking forward to dinner with my other Mom, Jackie H., since I hadn't seen her in what seems like over a year. She looks fabulous, hasn't changed a bit, and our three hour dinner at Bertucci's flew by. Each of us got caught up and promised to meet again much sooner than this past time.

Saturday I partook of the Sin of Sloth, and slept till 1pm. I finally got my Dazzle video capture card to work with Premiere, and was able to test out a brief clip (Eddie Izzard's Glorious) and realized that either my DVD player doesn't play VCDs, or perhaps I just need to tweak more.

I got Art's stuff all together and made him a copy of the clip he wanted ... and waited all morning. He completely blew me off. No call, just a message from Tony's two-way pager "tenant didn't show, going back to Philly, will call tonight." Needless to say he didn't call either but I caught him in chat and told him what I thought of leaving me hanging. Supposedly he'll be up here this Saturday at 2. I'm not holding my breath.

Didn't really want to talk to anyone and pretty much sulked the rest of the day. Got 4 from Capitol Video. Tried to build a comprehensive Outlook.pst so I can quit worrying about all these backups I have. Blogged.

I really want to be in London. Now.
1/14/2002 04:01:00 AM

Thursday, January 10, 2002
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I'm about to send back the second of four Netflix DVDs I have checked out at the moment. They upped my subscription by one over the Christmas holidays and it's going to take awhile for me to get through the other two (Sex in the City). I watched Final Fantasy tonight which I'd rate 5 out of 10. Good computer generated effects, the first actors completely done w/computers, etc. Yesterday it was Waiting for Guffman which wasn't any good at all: three out of ten. Just boring, not nearly as enjoyable as the dog show one.

Otherwise a very non-productive set of evenings. Not much energy or enthusiasm for much of anything. Very much in a holding pattern. Puttered around on the computer yesterday, downloading Vindigo w/London data for the Palm, and fixing my duplicated calendar entries. I ordered a Razzle Hollywood DV video capture board yesterday, and had asked for overnight shipping (only 5 bucks more) but apparently the order didn't reach their warehouse until today. That will be my tech gadget for the rest of the week. I wanted to see if I could make VCD or DVDs of the VHS tapes that I have, to save space and get some money from them by selling them off on ebay.

Oh yeah, I won a T-shirt and Journal in a Comedy Central-sponsored AbFab contest yesterday. Yipee! I rarely win anything. Just my luck it will be a size [S]mall.

Art called me at work this afternoon and is supposedly coming down from Philly this Sunday to get the last of his stuff from my apartment (hoo-RAY!).
1/10/2002 03:46:00 AM

Tuesday, January 08, 2002
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Home for lunch, and wondering whether posting is now available. Not much of a track record with Blogger, eh?
1/08/2002 07:21:00 PM

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Well the keynote was a major disappointment. The Apple Store didn't have satellite hookup and what webcast they were (finally) able to broadcast was audio-only. I wound up leaving early and getting most of it on my own at home. No news other than what I previously mentioned. iPhoto looks very cool, and if I had the money and if it were the right time I'd snag a 14" iBook right now. But neither of those is true.

I can't decide if it was a productive day or not. I just about finished fixing the ID tags for all the MP3s I have in iTunes, so now all the songs aren't a chaotic jumble when I download them to the iPod. I picked up the iPod at the new Clarendon Apple store last week. I hadn't planned on it but it just called my name, and seemed like a good idea, what with the upcoming trip. Besides, I rationalized, I can sell the old Rio500 and the Digital Wallet when I'm through with them.

The iPod is just too cool. 5GB of space, transfers Mac files and can boot a Mac, and stores 1000 songs. Very slick design. $399 ouch.

So now I have about 920 of my "favourite" tunes in my coat pocket. I don't know what else I was meaning to do tonight, other than writing a bit, but the night has slipped away.

Spent a good part of the night reading other blogs, and am wondering myself just how much to censor. I may wind up with two versions, a "semi-public" and an "absolutely private." We'll see. It looks as if I'll be doing something a bit more complicated with GoLive or FrontPage or the like.
1/08/2002 03:44:00 AM

Monday, January 07, 2002
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Will Apple Live up to its Hype?

Today is the day of Steve Jobs' keynote from MacWorld San Fran. It was moved up a day because, according to Steve and Apple's home page, Apple has something "beyond the rumour sites" to unveil. There has been an ungodly amount of speculation among the various Mac news sites. Unfortunately, Time Canada have let the cat out of the bag, at least in part, with a cover story about the new flat-panel iMac, and Apple's release of iPhoto. I'll be heading over to Clarendon to watch the keynote at the Apple Store there and will report back afterwards. I got permission last week to attend and will probably make a very long lunch hour out of it.
1/07/2002 03:23:00 PM

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Have I changed the template settings correctly?

1/07/2002 04:35:00 AM

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Well that was fairly painless but we've learned a valuable lesson: don't attempt to change settings without saving first. Dammit.

I had decided to start writing stuff down around the new year and after lurking around various blogs thought this might be the appropriate medium. Quite a bit has been going on and quite a bit is lost in my daily Palm calendar entries. 2002 is definitely shaping up to be a watershed year for me. Big, big changes on all fronts.

So, to begin: Today. Hmm... slept till 12:30, a first for me in MANY MANY weeks. I called mom to see if she wanted to try the webcam but John has torn his PC apart and doesn't have his working. Thought I was going to be productive and go though magazines and sell some stuff on ebay or half.com, but instead decided to go down to Dupont Circle to see if Lambda Rising had a new mag. It was very cold and very wet but no sign of the snow storm that had been predicted Friday. No luck at Lambda, and I was back by dusk at 4 and thoroughly unmotivated.

Read some blogs, and signed up for my own account. Dave B. called to ask about hotels and things to do in London, as he will be there with his wife the same time Steve and I are over there (Feb 11-19). I recommended he talk to a travel agent (but was surprised he's left it so late).

I'm going to go read and call it a night. More tomorrow, I'm sure. Bye! Bye!
1/07/2002 04:29:00 AM

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Though this shouldn't have been a frustrating experience, I have spent almost the last hour trying to sign up for a blogger account. From the Powerbook I kept getting various ODBC errors on the remote server, and on the Compaq just HTTP 500 errors. Seems OK now.

Let's post and test boys and girls, shall we?
1/07/2002 04:10:00 AM