Author: Dan Dickinson

Half a step back

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

Another fatblogging check-in:

  • Original weight: 233
  • Weight last week: 229
  • Weight this week: 229.5

Not a great week, clearly. I’m not surprised; work eliminated pretty much all opportunity for exercise, and also made it all too easy to eat like crap. I’m hopeful, though not terribly optimistic, that this week will be better.

.:.

I finally fixed the connection problem with my desktop. And by “fixed” I mean reinstalled Windows. There were obviously other problems going on anyway, and I’d always been annoyed that it shipped with XP Home, so I installed Pro. I didn’t do a completely clean install though, so I can foresee problems popping up before too long. Still, I needed a working computer by today so I could get to work on my paper. The only problem now: the sound card doesn’t work.

[UPDATE] It also seems to recognize my USB2.0 controller as only 1.1.

[tags]fatblogging, xp home, xo pro[/tags]

Man, did I ever need that

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

Here’s how the last 22.5 hours have gone for me:

  • 8:15 PM: leave work. Assaulted by awful reggae band and throngs of Harry Potter nerds outside the Indigo on Bay Street. What those two have in common is beyond me; maybe if I read the books I’d understand.
  • 8:30 PM: arrive at Fieramosca to meet Nellie, CBGB and two other friends. See M2H2 eating dinner there as well.
  • 8:35 PM: finish first glass of wine. Did I mention it’s been a long week?
  • 12:30 AM: finish spectacular meal and close down restaurant.
  • 1:00 AM: arrive home for sleep. Glorious, glorious sleep.
  • 9:00 AM: wake up, read half of the newspaper, answer some emails.
  • 10:00 AM: go back to bed. Wrestle sleeping cats & wife for some space and a pillow.
  • 2:00 PM: get out of bed. Literally cannot remember the last time I slept this late. Eat, shower, try to summon energy.
  • 3:30 PM: get haircut. My head feels like someone pulled a prickly towel off of it.
  • 4:00 PM: stop by the office to get my laptop. Run into PC and his son on the way out. Pick up cat food.
  • 5:00 PM: grab treat from Starbucks, come home, plant ass on chair, get caught up on world happenings.
  • 6:45 PM: write this blog post.

I suppose I should have taken it easy last night, gotten up early today and done some work, but I think this approach will pay off in the long run. I needed a night off, and taking a day off feels pretty goddamn good as well.

[tags]day off[/tags]

Nailed it

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Someone at work just commented that I seem like a zombie today. I was going to protest or make a witty rejoinder but I had no energy, so I just moaned and shuffled away instead.

I may well tear off somebody’s arm before the day is out too.

[tags]zombies[/tags]

"And chew…and chew…8 more…7 more…"

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If you’re a Battlestar Galactica fan and you’re reading this article over on the TV show blog, you might be thinking to yourself, “Who knew Katee Sackhoff was such a girly-girl? And where did THOSE come from?!!!?!” *

.:.

I managed to run about 1.5 miles this morning and then just barely made it work on time. I have an 8AM meeting tomorrow, so clearly there will be no early morning run. I think my only workout of the day will be PowerEating at Fieramosca.

.:.

 

[Brilliance from Indexed, by Jessica Hagy]

.:.

I think that if I were to somehow narrow down my all-time favourite songs, “NYC” by Interpol would be on there.

.:.

* You would probably only think this if you’re a guy. Or my wife, who has a girlcrush on Starbuck.

[tags]battlestar galactica, katee sackhoff, indexed, jessica hagy, interpol[/tags]

C

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

100 days ago we took possession of our condo. Let’s recap: I love the location & neighbourhood even more than I thought I would. The view’s even better than I expected, and Nellie’s gotten used to the balcony. In general I love almost everything about the unit and the building.

However, we’ve had some major problems. The toilet backed up two days in a row; I wasn’t here for that, but Nellie went through hell. Our floors still haven’t been replaced. We’re still missing blinds in our living room. The elevators have been very, very spotty and in various states of disrepair. But most frustrating of all has been the gas leak.

I blogged about it recently. Since then nothing’s improved; in fact, customer service has just pissed us off more. They seem to have two settings: ignoring us or scolding us. Because of work and school I’ve had little time to deal with this, but something’s gotta give soon. The people in charge of fixing what could potentially be a serious safety risk seem to be either incompetent or stupid. I don’t want to threaten them with legal action, but unless they can extract their heads from their asses it may come to that.

None of this has made me not love my new home. I’d just like to be able to love all of it, including the den and the barbecue.

[tags]condo, gas leak, context, spire[/tags]

Like sand through the hourglass, this is irritating the shit out of me

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I’ve been too busy to blog lately. Sorry, devoted readers, but work is intruding like a mother. I’m on my way out the door now to meet Nellie, head home, eat something and do another 3 or 4 hours of reading. I won’t come up for air again until Friday evening, probably, when I visit Fieramosca with some friends. Awesome food, downtime and non-work conversation…I’m not looking forward to that a bit.

On an unrelated topic, does anyone have a time machine?

[tags]aaaarrrggghghjhtrphtjrhrhotyhnryoh[/tags]

Serendipity

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

Why, you may be asking yourself, is Dan blogging at 3:43 AM? Well, I’m up for work. Implementations happen overnight and I’ve been up since about 2:20.

So here I was, sitting quietly in the living room with my laptop, when all of a sudden the fire alarm goes off. Now, fire alarms at 3 AM in a high rise are never calming events, but at least I was already awake. There’s nothing quite as jarring as being ripped from your sleep by a warning that you’re about to be immolated.

So, we check the hallway and it’s going out there too. Not much activity on our floor, but I can hear people in the stairwell. By this point Nellie’s roused herself and starts to get dressed. We see fire trucks coming up the street. We stuff the cats into their bags, gather wallets & keys and debate whether to start the long trek down. Then the fire department comes on the intercom and tells us it’s a minor situation (not even a fire, I’m guessing) on the 43rd floor (above us…a good sign) so we wait a few minutes, let the cats out of the bags and go back to work/sleep.

My implementation’s almost done, so I should be going back to sleep myself pretty soon. Fingers crossed.

[tags]fire alarm[/tags]