Archive for October, 2007
Ticked Tuesday: Dear Sick People
You’re not very nice. No, I’m not talking about you sick people with cancer, I’m talking about those people who get sick with the flu or a cold and go around giving it to other people. Not only giving it to them, but coughing all over the place, sitting closer than lovers and did I mention coughing all over the place?
I’m honestly quite upset right now at you, because now I’m sick. I never get sick. And tomorrow is Halloween at that and I have no voice. Were it not for my natural nice personality I would kill you and your entire family for this. Twice.
Next time you’re sick do us all a favor and go sit in a corner wearing a bio-hazard suit. Or better yet, just stay home. Asshole.
Boogers and snot,
Jeff
Habithack: Sandy
I recently stumbled upon a great service called Sandy. Sandy is your own personal assistant, without the need to actually pay her. The system is fairly simple, send an email to Sandy (you’ll get the address to send it to when you sign up) and say something like “Remember Mags can’t eat tomatoes” or “Remember that Del is a newb” and she’ll remember it for you. At the end of the week, she’ll send you a list of things you told her to remember. You can also use the remind feature (I love this) where you say something like “Remind me tomorrow at 8:00 to watch reaper” or “Remind me a week from now to tell Cheryl I lost” and she’ll tell you 15 minutes before the time of the reminder through email or sms.
The service is pretty neat, though not sure how useful it truly is. It’s fun to think you’re telling somebody to remember stuff, but for the most part it’s just as easy to set up a reminder to yourself about stuff like this. It’s still totally fun none the less and makes you feel important though, I’m just waiting for the ‘bring me coffee’ function.
Link Vomit
I’ve been gathering a fair amount of bookmarks in my ‘things to blog about’ folder that have never gotten done. To clear that, I’m just going to vomit out a bunch of them at you now. Have fun 
- Sit and fart in the duck while watching this translated children’s song (nsfw).
- Canadian advertising at its best
- Nebraska senator sues God
- Japanese women are transformers!
- Blackle, the energy saving Google, Huzzah!
- IMO.im, web-based client that allows you to log on to multiple IM services without the need to download them. Whoo hoo!
Cya Monday folks.
Movie: Transformers (Review)
Movie: Transformers
Genre: Action
I REALLY didn’t want to write a review for this movie. I honestly can’t even figure out why, but I just didn’t care for this movie, it rubbed me the wrong way. There were tons of explosions and everything, but I found (and it seems to be just me) that almost all of the robots looked the same. I seriously couldn’t tell who it was that got killed until the 2nd time I saw it. I think it’s the fact that when they’re fighting they’re far too shiny and you can’t see the colors as well.
The plot itself was OK I guess. It’s not supposed to have an awesome plot, it’s robots beating the living tar out of each other. The plot they had going on with the teenagers was boring, didn’t care, wanted robot on robot action.
Overall it wasn’t a bad movie, but I wasn’t happy with it. In all fairness, I wasn’t going into it with very high expectations given that it was directed by Michael Bay. My brother seemed to have loved it though, he bought it the day it came out on DVD. That said, check it out and see for yourself.
Final: 4/10
No please, not the TV!
The other day (Friday to be exact) I went to check out one of my favorite sites for keeping up to date on TV shows (since I don’t have cable) and movies,TV-Links.Co.Uk. To my dismay, I found only 404 errors. I was hoping in the bottom of my heart that it was just having technical difficulties. Well, it wasn’t so.
TV-Links was a site which linked to videos hosted around the internet (on sites such a YouTube and Stage6), almost all of which were copyrighted TV shows. This worked great for many people, they could watch all the TV for free. It also allowed those who were denied access (due to the area they lived in) to watch shows which are legally broadcast on the TV station’s websites to see it in an alternate form. However, they did not host any of the videos themselves, just linked to other sites and people who were hosting them.
On Thursday the owner of the site was taken into custody by Gloucestershire police under section 92 of the Trade Mark Act. The humorous part about this is that the site didn’t violate copyright laws. They were not hosting the files, nor did they upload them in anyway. They simply supplied a link to where they were located. Were authorities looking to point fingers it would be the users who uploaded them. The only thing they can legally do is subpoena the site’s owner to find out where the links came from, which would result in a long chain of ‘he said, she said’. Complete foolishness if you ask me.
More on this:
TV-Links man was arrested under trademark laws @ The Register
Ticked Tuesday: Dear American Phone Companies
You suck. Why the hell do you have better mobile plans at better prices than we (as Canadians) do? Right now I pay about $40/month for 150 anywhere-anytime (local/long distance). T-Mobile (which is unavailable here) had 600 minutes for the same price. I’m not one to say it often but HOLY SHIT! That’s a big difference. And that plan at t-mobile also includes unlimited nights and weekends, which mine doesn’t. I’m getting royally fucked here.
I know you’re thinking “Don’t be mad at me, be mad at the company who is ripping you off” but I’m totally not. You guys are setting really high standards. I mean giving people a good deal for their money, being nice on the phone, and actually giving a shit about your customers is just too high of a standard to set. Not everybody can be human you know!
That said: raise your prices, give them really bad customer service and start treating the customers like the pointless numbers they are! Don’t make me call your mother (collect and long distance)!
I got your number, gonna make you mine,
Jeff
Sunday Q & A on Monday
I’m going to follow RichMinx on this one, as she did a post with the same title yesterday. I know it’s a day late, but does it matter? Didn’t think so.
What do you do on Sunday morning?
Usually just lounge around, maybe catch up on movies or TV shows that I’ve ignored during the week. Lately also writing up blog posts (if able) to post on days I can’t think of anything the upcoming week.
What’s the last CD you bought?
Running with Scissors by Weird Al back in like…2002 maybe? No wait, I picked up that Britt Black CD about a year and a half ago. The last song I bought though was Your Mama by Kennedy.
What were you like at high school?
The quiet creepy kid. I had a huge ego and hated pretty much everything. I know, it’s a huge stretch from where I am today, but it’s true.
What are you ashamed of about yourself?
My social awkwardness. I’m horrible at general conversation, always think it through too much then say the wrong thing too late. That and having no idea what to do with my hands.
Most annoying celebrity?
I don’t know, whose on the top of the pop charts this week? Yeah, that one.
What offends you?
Tardiness, excuses and people being unprepared. If I’m going to do something, I’m there it 10 minutes early and ready for anything. If you’re not, you suck.
Who do you want to play you in the movie of your life?
Somebody who is uglier than myself, so I look better in comparison. Hey, it’s a movie about me, I can be shallow if I want to!
What’s the best thing about being single?
I saved a bundle on girl-insurance by switching to Single!
What’s the best thing about being in love?
I’ll let you know when I figure that one out.
What would your Mastermind topic be?
My what now? I’m usually pretty good at movie quotes and characters if that’s a good answer.
What was the last book you didn’t finish?
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. First 1/2 was read to me out loud and I couldn’t be assed to finish it once the end was spoiled.
What’s your favorite movie scene?
When Jim Carey is hanging on a satellite dish and says “Somebody has to kill the babysitter” in The Cable Guy, no idea why.
When was the last time you got drunk and what were you drinking?
Last time I was drinking enough to forget what I was doing was August…something after getting laid off. I woke up in my closet. Don’t drink alone, it’s not as much fun if you can only laugh at yourself.
Share with us one of the lamest moments of your life.
Getting an email 4 months after my high school graduation (and after I had ‘fled’ the province) from one of the girls I had a crush on (but never really spoken to) telling me that she had been thinking about me a lot lately and wanted to go get some coffee. Felt so lame after that one.
What song will they play at your funeral.
Something really annoying that gets stuck in your head so that all of the attendees will think “God that guy was fucking annoying, even after he’s dead.”
Can you share a sandwich filling?
Cheddar cheese, salami, pepperoni and ham. Cold cut fever!
With a million dollars, I’d…
Blow it all within a week and wonder what the hell I did with it.
HabitHack: Remember, Remember…
My memory is pretty bad when it comes to remembering anything of real values. Sure I might be able to recite pi to the 20th place (ok, that’s a lie) but remembering my family’s birthdays is out of the question. That’s why we have to give ourselves reminders. Today (even though I’m not sure what day it actually is) we’re going to talk about ways to create effective reminders.
The say ‘If you build it, they will come’. Well I think that ‘If you write it, it will get done’. You can think about something as much as you want, but if you can actually touch the task you’re less likely to forget it.
Post-it Notes: I love these little things, I have over 2000 over them in my apartment right now, I buy them in bulk. Whenever I have a task that I know I can’t do right now and have to leave the house to do, I write it on a post-it note. This method works great with prepants, because chances are high that you’re going to put your hand in your pocket at least once tomorrow.
Whiteboards: These are pretty great too. I have one right now with a calendar, corking board and just open whiteboard space on it that I picked up at Wal-Mart and it’s fantastic. Write down numbers I have to call, things I have to do when I get up, or just jot down random ideas for blog posts on it. This also helps if it’s close to the door so you can look on the way out to see if there is anything you had to bring but forgot. It’s just another way to stay organized (and is fun to draw on when you’re bored).
For those of us that are techs, we can use email reminders to send ourselves emails before the date. There a lot of services that do this, but it’s also done by Google Calendar, which I recommend. You just have to select the ’send email X time before event’ option when adding it to the calendar.
If you just want to make a ToDo list, I recommend Remember The Milk. It’s very simple, just sign up and add in what you have to do for each day, what type of list (home/work/school) it is and check it off as it gets done. This is a good site because it can be synced with your cellphone, which is pretty cool.
Messages in Time: This one is a little bit harder to do, but I’ve seen it done and it worked for her. She left a phrase ‘bad wolf’ throughout time in order to remind her of something that she had to do in the future. She did this by naming companies, having people tell the story of ‘the big bad wolf’ and even having it spray painted on the TARDIS, Though it absolutely worked and ended up saving the world, I’d recommend only using this if the post-it notes don’t work.
Those are my recommendations for remembering things, what do you do to remember to do stuff?
Habithack: Prepants
Do you ever find yourself rushing in the morning to get everything ready on the way out the door? Maybe this has become part of your daily routine? Well stop it! The phrase “always be ready in advance” is pretty worn out and often really hard to do, but a good pair of pants only gets better with wear. This is why you have to learn to ‘prepants’.
Prepants (even though I don’t think it’s a real word) is a real simple concept: Get your pants ready in advance. If you followed my advice of ditching the wallet, you should only have a few things to take with you, so pick out a pair of pants and put all the stuff in it for the next morning. If needed, even put the pants on and do a mock-morning. This is a great method and will shave time off your morning (which means you don’t have to get up as early!). Your mom used to pick out your clothes the night before and wasn’t life easier as a kid? Maybe she was on to something there. 
Tomorrow: Super-awesome-amazing ways to remember stuff!
Habithack: Lose your wallet
Just as the title says, you have to lose your wallet. This doesn’t mean throw it off a bridge (just yet) but you have to stop carrying it around. Do you realize how much useless items are in your wallet? I’m sure you don’t. Most people have a card for everything, pictures of everybody they’ve ever met, random ticket stubs and god knows what else. Do you really need to be carrying around a card telling people you’re FBI (Female Body Inspector)? I’ll let you know the answer is no.
Before you go out think about what you know you need, not what you ‘might need’. That will be the big time saver here. I find that the main needs are: Photo ID, Secondary ID/medicare, Debit card, Credit card, cash. For such a small list you surely don’t need to carry around a huge wallet that makes your ass look big.
If you find yourself unable to get rid of all your photos, just get rid of most of them. Wallets usually have that plastic booklet that people put pictures and cards in, start taking just that with you if you must. But in retrospect you don’t need to carry around a lot of pictures, the chances of you ending up on an island by yourself with only your memories is slim.
Once you have yourself cut down, now you can throw your wallet off a bridge. Remember to try and hit the guy in the sailboat for me!
Tomorrow’s post: Prepants!