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    Entries by jules (973)

    9:29PM

    i know a man...

    … who happens to have a wacky affinity for bizarro clocks…. and his birthday is coming up….

     
    cow-clock.jpg 

    whadda ya think???? :-)
    It’s available here. 

    i hafta say - it’s a wee bit hilarious. 

    7:06AM

    groundhogs and DNS...

    …. whay back when i was a wee sysadmin type at an even wee-er isp, back in the good ole days, i got to be the one to register domain names…. wiartonwillie.org, wiarton-willie.org, mebbe even wiartonwilllie.on.ca

    it seems that one of them has survived, which is always comforting.  one likes to see the continuation of one’s work - like a legacy for those who come after ;-) 

    okokok - fer gawd’s  sake, it’s just a frigging domain name - i got it. It’s still alive - and it’s been usurped by a higher power - go willie!

    So - go out and see if you can see a shadow today. Good luck willie,  you wiley little colour deprived rodent… 

    6:55AM

    figtography

    http://www.figtography.com/

    ok. whew. i have my breath back. there is an outstanding photographer hidden behind that link. good schtuff, interesting schtuff, with a keen eye and a martial interest as well. (go and see the swords!!!)

    somehow i manage to rub elbows with people who make the art of photography look easy. it’s good, spurs me to keep at it, and to pay attention to detail, and to always remember to breathe.

     

    ;-)

    great site network nerd. 

    6:42PM

    consistency...

    … there’s something to be said for consistency, if only to add a semblance of rhythm to your life, and to give people a standard by which the majority of your decisions and reaction can be based upon.

    the smapp dog’s life revolves around consistency; knowing when dinner is, when walks are, what my reaction will be when she is caugh on the couch… consistency.

    my life enjoys its share of consistency, wake times, home times, tea times, what to have for brekkie, if there’s brekkie….  but i think i’d like a little more inconsistency in some things…. something more risky, something more adventurous.

    —— i don’t know where this post is going.. i thought i had it all figured out out in me head - but now it’s all come unravelled… i don’t know if this is leaning towards life, or towards repetition, or kids or what.

     

    pfft. 

    9:24AM

    rain...

    how is it possible, when yesterday it was a balmy 12 degrees, spring coat weather, scarf-free weather, to be thrust into such wet conditions today.  weather rules out too many good options with the chickadees… no outside rollerblading, no walking the smapp dog together, and not being able to just get the little dickens out of the house and out from underfoot.

    there’s only so much entertainment in the tower, and then a head is likely to pop off.

    so - today is now a day to make sauce. and stay sane. sauce is a given, sanity, not so guaranteed. guerilla grocery run, coming up. 

    6:34PM

    my eyebrows are cramped...

    … from struggling with work all aft… and not making enough headway…  the company that remains nameless (tm) is definately full of challenges, yet there are days when i sit for a moment with the smapp dog and wonder about long term goals and all that must lie between now and then… pfft. I need a massage.

    a good thing - went out with good and old friends last night…. no - not old age friends, long time friends… it felt very grown up, with wine and tableclothes and a waiter with an accent.  it was quite good.  and funny.  and way too much food and giggles.  thank you dwarf and lady dwarf :-)

    this weekend will be another "weekend with the chickadees" - stay tuned for new episodes in hilarity.  the wee chickadee is still malingering with illness… i hope she can turn it around before saturday…

     

     

    10:41AM

    the challenge of neighbourhoods...

     

    about every 6 months, the mood to move strikes me - and i become addicted to mls.ca…

    and i can spend hours, looking at lot sizes and bedrooms and floor plans, and comparing addresses with mapblast.com - wondering about parking and windows and commute times… mortgage rates and garages and finished basements… it’s almost like a hobby, really.westonvillage.jpg

    i’m not limiting myself to neighbour hoods, i’ve seen outsanding homes in Swansea, Roncesvalle, High Park, Leaside, Old Weston Village, Aurora and even Unionville….not to mention the surprisingly amazing things that are a block north of queen st!!

     

    etob.jpg

    Still, it’s hard to imagine moving away from the water and the quiet of the quay… even if it *is* to get more dancing and gardening space, and some grass the smapp dog can call her own… so it’s a struggle. A bittersweet, addictive struggle. 

    3story.jpgaurora.jpg 

     

     

     

     

     

     

     


     

    10:17AM

    and so they sleep...

    … there are now 2 bodies in my bed. Sleeping.

     Previously, on Weekend with the Chickadees:

    …. at 3:30 am, we found outselves  cleaning up the vestages of yesterday’s birthday party meal from the carpet in the  chickadees’ room… it was easy, with the help of prosolve and the absence of  a smapp dog.  We giggled in bed, thinking we had gotten off easy, in the 3 years of chickadee life, to come out  puke-unscathed until now…

    At 3:40, the littlest chickadee’s tummy wanted to play again.

    And this little tummy continued on till 10 am, where, now, both the wiz and the littlest have retired to bed, to try and convice tummy that there really is nothing like a little rest to get back into the swing of things…. which bring us back to the present…. and it’s been thankfully quiet on the digestive front for almost an hour… which leaves the eldest chickadee and i to wonder what to have for breakfast ;-)

    Blueberry waffles and butter and syrup. And a little Conjure One on the mp3 player for the eldest… something different from Hilary. Not better, just different. 

    6:44AM

    what...friday already...

    blink… where did the week go? i’ve somehow got to stop the insanity… it’s simply going too fast.  I want time to stand still, the way it did when you were in grade 10 and thought time would NEVR pass fast enough….

    what happened to the time? i had 85 things on my list to do this week. I don’t even think i did 3 2 of them. this certainly doesn’t bode well for next week, i’m telling you. aside from sordid gossip and good stellas, the week was entirely too bizarre… and for some reason i have 5 different messages on voicemail screaming banzaii at me ;-) 

    there’s a really good reason for that.

    sure there is. 

    9:00AM

    trying to stay on top...

    … of the little bits of things i should know about…. visits to dirty olive keep me in the loop when i least expect it… ;-)

    For example…. it’s been National De-Lurking Week, and I didn’t even notice.

    For the motley crue who seem to have repeatable footprints in my logs, this means, that it’s a free-for-all for comments… instead of just reading, lurking and leaving. You really can’t pretend that you weren’t here. Really.  :-)

    delurk6.jpg 

     

    7:03AM

    leetle dallas footprints...

    33550-246533-thumbnail.jpg… like leetle shadows in the sand, i see your marks all over my logs. is it you?  is it really really you? or is it bruce willis?

     

    ;-) 33550-246536-thumbnail.jpg

    6:31PM

    the future...

    the sexy new word: web 2.0

    there’s little consensus on what it really means…. but it seems to mean alot to many interesting and influetential people…  it’s a big, messy, over encompassing word to capture the changes that have been happening with the internet.  Now, whether it’s all about collaboration, or blogging, or opensource on steroids, or if it’s simply a feeling of "being part of the big picture"… it’s hard to tell. Of course, the theories are multiplying like proverbial bunnies, and they are all tinted the same warm and fuzzy shade….

    But no one can quite put their finger on the colour; is it mauve, is it pale purple, is it purpley pink?  I think you get my meaning. Check out the wikipedia link above (which is yet another example of web 2.0) and see if you don’t agree… it’s here, it’s an exciting concept to have after all the fuzzles of the past few years… people need something to jump to.  People are tired of the fuzzle.

    Me, i’m admitting i am excited about web 2.0, even if i don’t really know what it is yet ;-) 

    6:13PM

    finding the zing...

    today i came across a posting from dirty olive, and by geeze, she did hit the blog nail right on the head… about finding that zing that just resonates with you, when someone "gets you"….  and there is no easier way to get that zing, than via the blogosphere… you would have to circulate ALOT to come across folks like that, and really, who has that much time any more? or interest ;-) to wade through the crud that is humanity.

    You know i’m not being cynical.

    You know i’m being realistic, and secretly you agree. You are thrilled when someone gets you. I know I am. I was so thrilled, that i realized i couldn’t live without the wizard. But there was a quiet, empty time when i was worried that i wasn’t going to find that.  And now, when that zing reappears online, i grin. Analog or digital, the zing is a thrilling reminder that we are all human, and we all need the zing.

    Wiz, thank you for your zings. You get it. You get me.

    10:32AM

    resume in a cupboard...

    … i realized this morning, as i pulled together all the fixin’s for coffee, that my cup cupboard (is that redundant), reads like a tech resume…. i don’t know for sure whether to be slightly embarassed, or slightly amused…. oracle, allstream, netcom, at&t, dell, webfeat…. i’m sure there are a few cups missing…. or perhaps they’ve broken over the years…. i used to have a nissan mug,  but somehow it’s disappeared ;-) i’m not sure it fit with the theme anyways…

     

    what do *you* have in your cupboard? 

    8:27PM

    naked furniture

    … gotcha.

    nakedfurniture.ca 

    my new tv unit is there.

    that is all. 

    8:07PM

    100 blog snippets...

    … dancing through my head - yet not a one is going to see the worthy light of day…

    • i could be talking about how i bought outstanding used blundstone boots, and how, after a day of loving wear, the turn on me and chew my Achilles tendon to the marrow, making it impossible to wear any other boots for days 33550-243262-thumbnail.jpg
    • i could be talking about finding bloggers in the most bizarre places, and the code of silence we observe while at the "place of work" (tm) nudge nudge, wink wink.
    • i could be talking about an insane desire to sell bandwidth like one would sell crack… pssst, hey - wanna by 45 Mbps between toronto and chicago?  I can get you a good deal….
    • i could talk about the tribulations of tying up the smapp dog to the only doggie hitching post at the variety store
    • i could talk about my wish of competition for grocery gateway
    but alas - my brain has 3 cells left, and i think i am going to save them, and watch house of wax.  so there.
    6:44AM

    the first week of 2006

    yeesh.

    fast - crazy - insane. working till 10 every night to catch up on what didn’t get done during the day. no time for good sleep, no time for cleaning or laundry; no time for making dinners either… i need a wife ;-)  

    the weekly web shop for groceries has even been relegated to next week - which mean more eating out, or a guerilla style attack on the local grocery store. and i’m not good with that, not with 60 stairs to climb to my kitchen….  oh my. 

    9:34AM

    the last day...

    … of christmas vaca. i’m not ready, it hasn’t been long enough, there are more things i still want to do! did i menation that i’m not ready yet?

    :-(

     

    last night the wiz and i went to see narnia… and it was surprising, the audience was old. not old old, but old like us ;-) and i suppose it was just as well, considering that old people are becoming just as noisy and  unfocused as kids… :-) common sense, i’ll say it again, isn’t as common as you think… people who think it’s ok to walk on the road, people who think it’s ok to let a cell phone ring in a theatre, people who think it’s ok to walk partway through doors, and then stop to talk to friends… people who DO stop in the middle of the sidewalk to chat, not caring enough about their surroundings to realize they are stopped in the middle of a busy sidewalk; and one of my all time favourites, people who stop to talk just in front of elevator doors….  

    you hafto think… at some point, how do you  get these people to smarten up? How can we enlighten them that their choices are inappropriate in a city of over 2 million?

    hmmm…. 

     

     

    9:05AM

    the end of tinsel...

    yes, it’s december 28th… the time for tinsel to die, for silly festive decorations to resturn to their dark abode in the garage, the time for recycling, and culling and finding homes for the sacks of kid pressies…. methinks it’s time for some little ones to graduate from a hope chest toy chest, to a full fledged shelving and storage unit…. if only to spare my sanity (and by extension, theirs). They won’t be able to find anything in their room soon… that could work in my favour, if i want to simply wrap something they haven’t seen for months, for their birthdays ;-)

    it was quite a worthy christmas, full of skates and ear buds and mp3 players.  And this was the Year of the Slipper. :-) And the Year of the Bootlegged Movie.  We watched Saw II on christmas eve. Festive, I tell yah. It was OUTSTANDING.  And t carry on the disturbing entertainment holiday tradition, my seester loaned me Haunted, by Chuck Palahniuk  - not disappointed, it’s troublesome.

    today the wiz returns to the office, and i am left to fend for myself with the holiday deco. Pffft. 

    8:28PM

    merry christmas...

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