After a few too many BSOD’s (even Heidi is aware of this term now), I was unable to get my computer to work anymore – I tried a bunch of things (including but not limited to a fresh install, Ubuntu, Puppy Linux, a new hard drive and new DDR2 RAM stick) to no avail.
I then decided to revive my old broken computer instead of trying to fix my newer one in futility. I reluctantly ended up putting Windows back on even though I was really tempted to use Ubuntu. My main holdback to keeping Windows is MSMoney which has a ton of my old financial information in and in a much smaller way, iTunes (though Songbird is going to rid me of that hold).
For my own fun (read: for next time), here’s a list of the programs that I’ve put onto my fresh Windows install already.
Whew! I’ll probably bump into a bunch more software that I ‘need’ but for now, I’m trying to keep my software bloat to a minimum (if I haven’t blown it already).
This movie came well recommended to me and it was a good, strange and profanity laced comedy. The main character was profound, confusing and yet remarkably consistent and believable. Some good lines in there and a nice change of pace from an action movie loaded with action to this one which seems to try to avoid it at every turn.
When a movie with a plot as benign as MLB drafting and trading using statistics instead of scouting intuition is this entertaining, you know they did something right. Great story that had both Heidi and I riveted to a sport that we really know and care very little about.
Ugh, this Christian movie was not worth watching. While it followed the plot of the Prodigal Son story closely, it seemed to lack all the great details that we had been learning about in the Prodigal God book study that we were going through. The acting was poor, most of the characters were poorly developed and the dialog was very local (to Texas) and didn't sound very natural to my Canadian ears.
In the new Desktop Tower Defense Pro, I found another little cubby with a bunch of other games where it counts your time that it takes to finish all the levels, called Sprints.
They change the roles of the towers that you make which was a bit of an adjustment for me – no longer were my squirt towers charged to the max always the best way to go. I had to fool around with the Ink’s and Bashes and all the other ones.
The first two levels were the basic game but just clocked for time (one which allowed selling [NA2], the other did not [NA2-NS]) – they weren’t too difficult. There was another one in there where it was more of a diagonal entrance and exit [NAC] which was new and interesting but didn’t turn out to be too difficult.
The next was a level where Spawns came from all four corners and ended in the middle – this one took a lot of thinking because it’s unlike anything I’ve done before. I ended up with a maze of my own making that looks like the top picture on this post. It turned out to work quite well – a little bit of tweaking and I could probably make it a bit better but it held up quite well for me for both the regular version [SA4] and the no selling version [SA4-NS].
The last level was the Hard version [H2] of the basic level (tougher to kill creeps) and after a few tries, I’m pretty sure that it’s impossible/very difficult to pass without juggling. I ended up using my juggling maze (minus all the air support in the middle) and was able to pass the level without too much trouble.
So I now have times for all the sprint modes:
And I made a little effort to get decent scores on all my Scenarios to end up with 55773.
Funny that evolution is all around us and I was still quite unaware of a lot of things about it. The above video is a very disarming look at what the theory of evolution is and importantly, what it is not. Here are some facts that I either learned for the first time or had mostly forgotten:
evolution is not the study of the origins of the universe – Cosmogenesis is.
evolution is not the study of how life first began – Abiogenesis is.
evolution has nothing to do with your belief in a God, many gods or no gods.
evolution combined with man’s intervention has brought us the modern dessert banana which didn’t exist 200 years ago (it came from plantains).
All together, a good 10 minute documentary worthy of your thought. They avoided the topic of whether humans evolved from apes (probably on purpose) which is another whole messy thing to think about.
“Dramatic change can be made, one small step at a time”
I thought that this educational comic outlining what cancer is and how difficult it is to fight summed it up for me quickly and easily. It also helps me understand why it’s marketed as a single cure for cancer as opposed to presenting it as the complex problem it is; I’d feel to overwhelmed donating to something that I didn’t think was curable.
Points for referencing MD Anderson in Houston, TX where my colleague’s son was treated. Their family couldn’t speak higher of the hospital and its doctors which has become the standard by which he gauges other hospitals (his son’s brain cancer was removed and remains in remission).
Is it surprising to you that 0.999… (repeated to infinity) is EXACTLY the same thing as 1?! Not approaching 1, not almost 1; exactly 1. It didn’t make sense to me either until I checked this:
1/3 = 0.333…
1 = 3*1/3 = 3*0.333… = 0.999…
I just blew your mind.
I remembered this from college but had forgot recently and it was a bit shocking to re-learn it. Nicely done, math.
What if the Thundercats was made specifically for Christians? It may just look something like this. I liked the habit on Cheetara and the loving kindness line.
I do have a bit of a thing for Thundercats. It was introduced to me in Grade 5 by my then best friend – I’d sneak over to his place and watch the show seeing as how it wasn’t allowed in my home.
Sidenote related to Thundercats: With all the movie adaptions of old material going on recently, a fellow fan thought he’d put together a fake trailer (which is really good).
As I noted previously, I was having a little trouble with the one scenario in the new DTD but with some assistance, I was able to find a maze that worked and got me through to the end. I did have one bash that I sold in the top right hand corner after the last boss passed but otherwise, I was able to make it through. Now, I’d like to come up with my own maze that works instead of just making someone else’s work, but I’m happy to be finished for now.
Yesterday morning as I was traveling back to Vancouver from the East coast, I made a stop in Chicago and picked up the whole CBC Hockey Night in Canada crew including (and not limited to) Scott Oake, Jim Hughson, Craig Simpson and Marc Crawford. They had just finished covering the Vancouver vs Chicago game in which Chicago eeked out a win in the last few minutes of the game, tough loss for the Canucks. They were mostly in first class so we didn’t get a chance to talk about what was all happening in the series but it was cool to see them; if famous people that I’ve seen fascinates you, you gotta check out this post.
I was able to get through all of the scenarios that it had pretty quickly because they were a lot easier than the original version and because I had retained some of the original skills.
With the exception of Scenario 23, which is pretty difficult. I’m certain that it’s not impossible but it is pretty tough and I haven’t been able to beat it yet. Maybe I’ll be able to forget about it and live with a mostly completed game but knowing me, I’m going to come back sometime soon and beat that level.
It’s been a year now since we moved out to BC. While it doesn’t seem like we’ve been here that long, it does feel like a long time since I had the big cross country trip or visited with the good people of Montreal.
We’re really enjoying it out here. We’ve already become acclimatized to BC winters that going to a ‘real’ winter is too chilling, getting used to life with so few mosquitoes is no chore at all (as opposed to SK), speaking English all the time is nice, having family nearby is still super-enjoyable and being close to the States for some quick runs to Target for clothes, Trader Joe’s for bean dip and cheap beer and eating some quality Mexican food is thrifty-fun.
Here’s hoping it works out for us to stay here much longer…
