Guardian Archives

Cousin's Visit

Wed, 13 Jun 2007 02:40:42 GMT

One of my cousins was over for dinner at my parents' on Friday night, so I gladly joined the rest of my family for that occasion. I've hardly ever seen any of my cousins due to how far away they live, let alone get to know them. Anyhow, he moved to Alberta from Thunder Bay, Ontario about a year ago because of the booming economy up in Fort McMurray (in northeast Alberta, has all the tar sands which are in huge demand now, thus the jobs), and he was in Calgary on Friday to meet some executives in relation to a new job he was applying for. He got it too, which is nice to know. It was good to see him again, although it's hard to converse with someone you hardly know. It's sad to think of your own cousins as strangers.

My weekends have been pretty boring other than that, unfortunately. It seems like a lot of my local friends keep having other things on the weekends which make them busy, and... going out alone to do stuff just isn't much fun... Besides, a lot of activities cost more money than I'm willing to spend on a regular basis. :|

I signed up on an online dating site on Sunday, per the suggestions of several people. I had taken a personality test on the site years ago before the site had turned into a dating site, so I was offered a one year free membership there. I figure I should make use of that.

I think I've become kind of critical of online dating because I can't quite grasp how an online relationship is supposed to be different than an online friendship since there isn't any of the physical component involved. I mean, it's not like I'm a very physical person anyways and that's not terribly important to me for the most part, but it still makes me wonder what the difference would be. I think I've had friendships deeper and more meaningful than that.

Furthermore, there's the issue of distance. It's not like it'd be impossible to move somewhere else if I wound up finding someone incredible, but it wouldn't be ideal or practical if I had no other reasons to move so far away either.

The Lights Are Dead!

Wed, 06 Jun 2007 04:00:49 GMT

I'm currently powerless! Lightning struck either my building or some electrical lines nearby around 7:30 MDT because my place is almost entirely without juice. I saw a flash and the crack at the same time and was in the middle of thinking that it was awfully close judging by both the light and the sound being right together when everything suddenly went out. I was like, "o_O Uh oh..." Fortunately I had already finished cooking my pasta, so the stove shutting off wasn't a problem for that immediate meal.

It's kind of weird, though, because the stove's clock and my phone's modem (it's a cable phone) both have power, but the actual elements of the stove and the phone itself don't have any electricity. Neither does anything else. Also, it seems that only some units in the building were affected. I tried the fuses in my own apartment, but they didn't help. I guess that makes sense if it's not just my unit.

Anyhow, I managed to find a neighbor that had power flowing through some of his outlets, and he thankfully let me use his phone to report the outage to the power company. It sounds like they may be a while, though, because of a large number of outages across the city. The neighbor also let me keep the few refridgerator/freezer items I had in his fridge/freezer, so I'm certainly very appreciative of that. ^^

So I am currently writing this from my parents' house!

A King Triton Spotting!

Thu, 31 May 2007 02:24:40 GMT

God I love Stella XD

Relay For Life, Movie, Guitar, Big Decisions...

Wed, 30 May 2007 06:15:28 GMT

I volunteered to help with the Canadian Cancer Society's Relay For Life event after I e-mailed the volunteer coordinator there, an old friend, about adding my new address and phone number to their database and getting a request for volunteers for the event in response.

I assisted with the set up of the event Thursday evening. It was rainy and cold that day. I'd stupidly only brought my '04 Relay For Life t-shirt and a light jacket. You'd think I'd remember from past events to bring more clothing in case of nasty weather. I mean, most of my body was fine with the jacket on, but my hands were freezing due to having to pick up and carry around tables and chairs that had been sitting out in the cold for a while. Nevertheless, I enjoyed helping out and was reminded why I've spent so much time and energy volunteering with the CCS in the past.

I wound up agreeing to help out during the evening shift of the actual event the next day because of my satisfaction. Besides, you only get the new t-shirt if you volunteer on the day of the event, and I didn't want to miss out on that. It's a collectable and a real memory-evoking souvenir. ^^

I agreed to the task of wandering around with a big "Ask Me!" sign and answering people's questions. Not generally my kind of thing, but what the heck. I figured it was something I should do rather than avoid. There wasn't much else to choose from at that point anyways.

My brother elected to help out with clean up and assistance in the food tent. Actually, I wasn't aware he was helping out too until we happened to come across each other Thursday night. I guess we both got the e-mail.

It was nicer on Friday while I was doing my Ask Me! patrol through the field of team tents, although there was still enough of a cool breeze that I once again wondered why I hadn't brought along a long sleeved shirt to put underneath the new Relay For Life t-shirt. I mean, not like I have a lot of potential candidates. My wardrobe has lots of random t-shirts and jeans, but is pretty pathetic in other categories. Up until a few weeks ago, I didn't have anything green other than a single pair of underwear... St. Patrick's Day has always been interesting as such. o_o; Er... wait a minute... that sounded naughty. ._. I meant that it's been a challenge since I have nothing else and wore the underwear underneath my jeans one year, but... not like I was going to pull down the tops of my jeans a little for most people upon being asked where the green was with the threat of a pinch looming.

Okay. Woah. Got way off topic there. o_o'''

So I need to get some more basic long sleeved shirts. That's a future commitment. Many people wore white ones underneath the blue t-shirts to match the white writing and logos on them. I thought that looked good; I think that's what I'll do next year.

I wish I could have participated as I did in 2004. It's so hard to put together a team, though. I hardly know enough people as is, never mind getting people to commit.

I saw the third Pirates movie on the following Saturday evening. It was pretty awesome, but man was it ever packed in there. The girl at the box office desk informed me that the 9:30 show only had 6 seats left while the 10:00 only had 1. Go figure how the later one actually had less.

Anyhow, I went for the 9:30, and I encountered some difficulties finding a seat despite zipping over to the theatre as quickly as possible. I knew right off the bat that any seats in the middle area were probably a lost cause, so I immediately aimed for the ones further to the back. Nevertheless, it was "I'm afraid that seat's taken" one after another. With only 6 seats left in the entire theatre, I was starting to worry that I would wind up roaming across half the place before I found an available seat. Fortunately that wasn't the case; I found one right at the back. ^_^

Chinook's always busy, even when there aren't a bunch of big movies having just been released.

I was waiting on something I'd ordered online for a while, which was kind of worrying and annoying. You see, I'd decided I wanted to get it over a month and a half ago, but I was first stuck for a bit due to the remaining credit limit on my credit card being too small to fit it in until the next payment in the following month. Then there was a credit reversal on an item I had previously bought which was incorrect and had to return which I had been hoping would make enough space to go ahead and buy the precious item I now wanted. Well no, once the reversal went through, it was clear that the remaining credit limit was off by only a little bit. Gah! That's so annoying! It's like a tease!

Finally, finally, finally, the next payment went through (in fact, the payment date fell on the weekend, so BMO paid on the following Monday, setting it back even further), and I made my order. Then over the next few weeks, nothing happened other than my online MasterCard account going screwy with my remaining credit limit getting reduced down to a very small amount while no transactions appeared in the unbilled transactions section. Like WTH? My best guess is based on what I know from credit card processing at work. It seems you can put a credit card transaction through the machine, but it doesn't actually go through until it gets "posted". So maybe they'd put my order on my card but not posted it, and my account took the money expected to be used out of my remaining credit as a way to reserve it to make sure it isn't used for something else in the meantime.

The saga continues. I got an e-mail tonight saying there was some kind of glitch on my order and it never went through... and has now been cancelled. I'm encouraged to re-order, though. Fuck. Well I'm not going to take another chance on the online ordering system, especially in that the message seemed to be an automated one rather than a personalized message (thus, has this glitch really been fixed yet?). I'm going to call the number they provided as an alternative tomorrow and try to order it that way.

So at this point, it looks like I won't be seeing the actual item until two months have passed by since I made the decision to get it. Argh. That's frustrating. However, at least it gave me a fair amount of time through it all to double check that I was sure about this. I don't like jumping into things and abandoning them; I have a bad habit of doing that sometimes, mostly on the important stuff which is stupid.

Ah... Why am I being so secretive about this? I guess I've become a bit more comfortable about talking about it in the months since my initial choice. Besides, I'm afraid some people are going to start thinking it's an inflatable doll or something. And my brother probably already knows by accident anyways.

I've decided to try to learn to play the guitar. It sounds tough and I'm awfully embarassed about it for some reason (thus why I won't even walk into a music store locally), but I figure it's better to give it a shot than give up before I've even tried. I'm bad enough with defeatism as is.

It's not like this is out of the blue for me. I'd inwardly thought about it on and off for years, but I don't think I ever got to the point of actually thinking about doing it until recently.

There's something else that I've decided to start with after many, many years of considering it and nothing else working to fix the problem, but that one's definitely even more personal and embarassing on the basis of traditional gender roles.

I wish I had someone to talk about this kind of stuff with right now. I know many of you guys have offered and maybe I'll eventually open up a bit more than I have, but I find it extremely hard to talk about core issues with anyone other than a super close friend - and I seem to lack one right now. I don't make friends easily, never mind really close ones. *sigh*

Incubus is apparently coming to town in August. I'm not usually a concert person because of my overbearing social anxiety (whereas most people will draw the conclusion that I'm not into music, which I guess I can understand how it would appear that way), but maybe I'll check that out nonetheless. I love their stuff.

Oh yes, my .hack//Liminality soundtrack arrived today, which is awesome. I had a long and frustrating experience with this endeavour too. Basically, I originally ordered it through Amazon last August, and it was put on delay... and again... and again... and again... for months and months and months. I started thinking I'd better just cancel the order and try going through one of the third party sellers in Amazon's marketplace. The order was actually cancelled by Amazon not long after that with an explanation that they couldn't get it, and I went the way of the marketplace. My wait was fortunately very short upon finding a seller in the marketplace.

Back to Mac!

Sat, 19 May 2007 19:31:57 GMT

I finally got a computer on Tuesday of last week and the internet, cable TV, and a cable phone on the following Sunday. I decided I'd try the cable phone service because the cable company gives slight discounts for everything you add to your package. I figured bundling the phone in there as well might save me a few bucks. Besides, it saves the hassle of dealing with both a cable company and a phone company. Only one bill per month!

Anyhow, back to the computer. After a bit of thought and getting fed up with Windows and the unbelieveably slow Dell at my parents' place, I switched back to Apple and got myself one of the new iMacs. Before getting out-voted several years ago and the resulting introduction of the Dell to the family household, we were a Mac family. Even while using the Dell, I used the old Performa to edit pictures and create graphics (yes, most of the ones you see me posting everywhere!) since it had Photoshop on it and also to keep track of my finances because it had a spreadsheet program while the Dell lacked Excel.

I still have the Performa actually. I decided to take it off my parents' hands because I can still use it for my finances and some occasional help with graphics even though I purchased Adobe Elements for the iMac. Besides, the Performa has been so great. It's not just a computer anymore; it's also an old friend. Maybe that's kind of silly, but I love that machine despite its limitations when compared to today's computers.

The iMac's been pretty awesome so far. I've been checking stuff out whenever I have the time to. I've never used any version of system 10 before, so it's a combination of re-learning old things and learning new things.

There are some drawbacks to switching straight from Windows to Mac unfortunately. I have an old Toshiba laptop with Windows 98 on it as backup in case I need a Windows environment again for some reason, but it doesn't have much hard drive space (about 1.5 GB) and not much memory. I bought it used many years ago, so I wouldn't be surprised if it's actually not much newer than the old Performa considering the limited specifications.

I managed to download a shareware FTP program for the iMac, so I can now update the files on my website again! The software looks pretty good, so I'll probably wind up buying it. Ugh, I didn't want to start using iWeb. I'm a pure source kind of guy. ^^

As for work, I think I've reached the point where I've finally figured out and learned enough essential tasks that I no longer feel lost and confused when asked to do something that no one had ever trained me to do.

I'm currently running queries at work to gather data on the number of people who participated and how much was raised in one of my organization's largest events. I finished the one for 2006's event for the person who requested it this week, and now they'd like the same for 2005 as a comparison. The fun thing about it is that as I go through the process, I'm discovering some duplicate entries in the database - some of which are actual transactions that went through twice rather than just one transaction that was mistakenly data entered twice.

I came across some poor guy who wound up paying his registration fee x2 in 2005 because my ex-boss ran his credit card through twice due to what looks like two photocopies of the guy's registration form floating around. I'm a bit shocked to see something like this still sitting around from 2005 without any apparent credit reversal, though. You'd think the guy would have noticed on his statement that it went through twice and phoned us about it. o_o

My parents are away until June 16th. They're in BC right now, partly to occupy the new condo they bought there (with the intention of eventual retirement) and also to continue assisting best they can with Nana and Poppa. Nana has been diagnosed with some kind of neurological disorder; they're not quite sure what it is but suspect it's Alzheimer's. As such, a whole swack of concerning situations have developed in the past few years, like Nana's mood swings back and forth, her doing unsafe things like running across the road in front of traffic, the questionable health of Poppa and whether Nana can properly take care of him anymore, and even just the breakdown of communication because of how scrambled Nana's e-mail messages are due to her condition. The last one is actually the most worrying because we'd get these e-mails that said something like, "Poppa lettuce walk dog dead". We would already be in a concerned state, but receiving a message like that only made us fearfully wonder whether she meant that Poppa had been walking the dog while Nana threw out a dead head of lettuce from the fridge, or if Bailey (the dog) had died, or... heaven forbid the other possibility.

I also got into a really stupid spat with Mom and Dad a few weeks ago before they headed off... I missed Mother's Day because of that, and now I feel rather guilty about it. I suppose this month long period of them being away may help to give me some time to figure out what to do about that, but... eh.

Meanwhile, my brother is home at my parents' for the summer. I went over there briefly on Thursday after work to get some stuff and discovered him eating peanut butter on Melba toast. Gah! I've done similar snack-meals in the past myself; that's not something you want to make a habit of. I invited him over for chowder Friday night, and he accepted. I'm glad he came because the evening was probably more eventful than it would have been if I had spent it alone. I just hope I didn't bore him too badly with anime night afterwards. I mean, he looked interested to some degree in that he hadn't seen these particular shows before. However, anime's not his favourite thing really. He loved Initial D as I understand it, but that show held appeal for him because of the cars and racing in it.

I'm totally hooked on Incubus right now. I think I mentioned before how I bought Light Grenades a while ago. Well I also got Morning View and Make Yourself more recently, and they're awesome. They've got a great sound. I also got Year Zero on the day it was released, and that one's pretty good too. Reznor's still putting out original stuff.

I've added some other CDs to my collection too, but I think listing them all out would be anal. Suffice to say, I'm satisfied with most of my purchases.

Amazon finally informed me flat out that they couldn't get the .hack//Liminality soundtrack for me after so many months from last August when they kept sending "Your item has been delayed" e-mails. I'd already been pondering just cancelling the order and going through a third party in Amazon's marketplace for months before the final message; now I've ordered via one and the CD's already been shipped off. Yay!

There are a few other personal decisions I've made recently that are good, bad, and somewhere in between, but I can't talk about them in a public journal.

Apartment Update

Sat, 31 Mar 2007 19:01:14 GMT

I've settled into my place surprisingly well over the past three weeks. I've managed to avoid laziness and maintained a strong level of organization in doing what I need to do at home. It's kind of weird how that is with me. It's not the first time I'd noticed it either. There have been times in the past when I was living at home where my parents would go away for a week or so, and I'd suddenly totally switch from being someone who only does the bare minimum to taking over everything that needs to be done for myself.

Some good examples of the odd and sudden behaviour changes in this situation: shaving regularly, showering regularly, making my own meals regularly, eating actual meals regularly rather than snacking on junk food (of which I've made the strategic decision to not have them in my place to ensure that I don't), and getting up at the required time every morning without the assistance of a family member to prod me into getting up.

Haha, I make myself sound like such a lazy slob in my years of living with my folks. Well maybe it's true. ^^;

I think I'm most satisfied with my successfully planning out grocery shopping when I need it and making good meals. I've already done several recipes from the cookbook I have, and many have turned out awesome. I found that I had to alter the contents and/or proportions of most, though. Take the Spanish rice for example. It was originally supposed to only have 3/4 of a teaspoon of chili powder and only 1/8 of a teaspoon of garlic powder. I pulled out the smallest measuring spoon I had which was 1/4 teaspoon, envisioned half of that, and was like, "...what the hell? That's nothing." I might as well have dabbed a tiny amount of garlic powder on my pinky finger and dumped it into the massive amount of rice, ground beef, and other ingredients... which would be pointless since I can't imagine it having much of an impact on the flavour in such a small quantity.

So I went with x4 on the spices! 3 teaspoons of chili powder and 1/2 of one for the garlic powder. I know that spices are expensive and you don't want to be going through them quickly because of that, but c'mon. It tasted GREAT. :D

Then there was the corn chowder and the wild rice soup. Both turned out awesome too but required their own modifications. I don't get how some recipes manage sautéing with such small amounts of water/oil/butter/margarine/whatever. The non-liquid foods start drying out and even burning if the required temperature is insanely high. There's a chowder recipe I've used several times at my parents' place that called for a small amount of water and about 3 or 4 times as much cod, onions, celery, and whatever else was in the sautéing portion of ingredients. Then you're supposed to crank the temp to boiling right off the bat and watch the tiny amount of water evaporate in a matter of minutes while the food burns on the bottom of the pot despite constant stirring. @_@

Anyhow, I've had fun making and eating meals despite the recipe alterations and the amount of time they consume to put together. ^^

As for furniture, I now have two basic lounging chairs as well as the two table chairs I picked up a few weeks ago (three table chairs in total), so I have something to sit in to watch TV.

I also bought a VCR/DVD player, although connecting it up to the 25-30 year old TV my parents gave me turned out to be a bit of a challenge. It has hardly any connections at the back and doesn't have the video and audio slots at all. I mean, it only has one speaker on the right side, so I was expecting that perhaps it would only have one audio slot rather than the two for left and right you normally see on newer TVs. But nope, not even that. It has an RF connection at the front for the antenna, a UHF/(something or other) connection at the back for the other range of channels via antenna, and an "MPX Out" thing at the back. That's it. I looked up the MPX connection, and it seems to be pretty much a dead connection. It was planned to be a major outlet that would be compatible with all sorts of gizmos and gadgets... and then never went anywhere. It was kind of disappointing to learn that because it was the only slot that would fit in a regular video/audio cable (but didn't work of course).

So I wound up getting my DVD player to display on the TV by hooking up the RF through a coaxial cable to the machine. The sound quality seems to be degraded sometimes because of the less than ideal connection and I have to disconnect the actual antenna to use the RF for the DVD player, but it works. I'm not sure what my brother did for all those years when the TV was used with the VCR and other devices at my parents' place because the connection was coming in through the back somehow, not hooked up on the RF at the front. I tried the UHF connection with the coaxial cable, but it doesn't work like the RF one.

The screen is bleeding anyways, so I think I could use a newer TV. XD I have a friend at work who offered one of her mother's extra TVs; I'll probably go with that. Even if the TV isn't ideal, I suspect it'll be better than what I currently have. I hope it's analog too. I have to say I'm not impressed with the new digital flatscreens. The old TV I have now was replaced recently with a new flatscreen at my parents' house. Both my dad and my brother keep commenting on how clear and bright the screen is, but I keep seeing pixelization all over the screen and even grainy-ness in certain spots, often when there is less light. They got one of the higher end ones too - some of the less pricey ones at the store had a brutal amount of blurriness and pixelization.

...Am I making any sense on this? I admit I'm no techie when it comes to electronics. When I say digital versus analog, it's on the basis that I assume the newer screens I was seeing at the store are built more like computer screens than like classic TVs. Many of the TVs at the store that weren't flatscreens had the same pixelization effect, so it doesn't seem to only be a flatscreen trade-off.

I don't know. Maybe I'm the only one concerned about my TV's picture quality being in the range of a compressed Flash video on a computer.

I'd planned on having a house warming this evening with some friends at work, but it was cancelled due to them having a bunch of reports to work on over the weekend for school. As such, I guess I have a little more time to get some furniture and decorative materials, etc.

As it turns out, though, another friend is having a board game night tonight, so I can replace the house warming with that as my social event for the evening. My only regret is that I'll miss the hockey game against Vancouver tonight. I wish I could have watched some of the game against Minnesota on Thursday night - we scored twice in the first few minutes of the game apparently, Iggy (Jarome Iginla, the captain of the Flames) got a hat trick (scored 3 goals in a game), and we won the game. Apparently we also won the game against Minnesota on Tuesday, so that's pretty awesome in that we beat them twice in a row, both on the road. We've been awesome at home this year (best in the league for home games) but awful on the road for the most part.

I went to a friend's birthday party last night. She worked at the place I currently work at up until a few months ago. It was at a bar, so that sets the general picture of the setting right there I think. Despite some of my friends' intentions to get me drunk, I called it quits after four beers. ^^;

You know, I wasn't giving any serious thought about the price of the beers last night; I just put the cash down last night to pay for it. I've been thinking about it ever since I got up this morning, though. It was Kokanee on tap (or supposed to be anyways). The end amount was $31. *pulls out calculator* So that's $29.24 after the GST is hacked off and $7.31 after the division by four. Damn. I mean, seriously. $7.31 for beer on tap? I thought tap was supposed to be cheaper. Hell, I've never had beer in a bottle at a bar that was that expensive. I think the highest price I've had for a beer before that was $4.75 or perhaps $5 (those were bottled).

Maybe it was Kokanee Gold. I noticed that it seemed darker than normal, but I wasn't sure if it was the lighting or something. It didn't taste that great. But then I don't like beer or alcohol period anyways, so... pfft.

Anyhow, it was fun. I had a good time once the alcohol kicked in. And even before that although less so... so it must have been a good party all in all. Some of my friend's friends were rather quirky/fun, which was cool. I think the quirkiness increased steadily as the alcohol consumption increased. XP

EDIT:
I've been informed that I was probably drinking pints at the bar, which isn't the same size as a bottle or can of beer - approximately 1.5 times the size I think. So that may explain the price jump. It was still on tap, though. Perhaps the rest of the priciness is based on the bar being downtown where rent likely costs more.

I guess that also means I actually drank about 6 bottles of beer, which helps to determine why I was fairly wobbly from just four glasses. o_o'

Moving Out, Moving On?

Mon, 26 Feb 2007 00:16:40 GMT

So I'm finally moving out. I got myself an apartment last week and will be moving in next weekend. I admit that I feel somewhat satisfied with myself in setting the course to independence and also having successfully done what I said I would do so many times and never did... like so many things in my life. However, the odd thing is that most people I break the news to are actually more excited about it than even I am.

There are so many things I'm trying to keep track of and plan on for the move, but I'm sure there will be things I hadn't realized I would need after the move. You know, little things you take for granted when you've been settled at your current residence and lifestyle for years that are so common and routine that it doesn't occur to you that they would no longer be there upon uprooting yourself and going elsewhere. It's sort of like how you leave the house to go somewhere sometimes with the feeling that you've forgotten something but can't place your finger on what exactly it is and brush it aside as a ridiculous anxiety - and then you realize what it was upon reaching your destination when the need for it becomes apparent due to a situation that requires it.

I suppose I'll need to get a phone eventually, but I don't think I'll get it right away. It's one more thing I'd be paying for every month, and I'd prefer to get settled in with my new place and my modified financial situation before tacking on any further recurring expenditures. I recognize this may make things difficult, though.

Along the same lines, TV, a DVD player, cable, and the internet. I recently got some more anime series, but I won't be able to watch them in my new place. What timing. I could always watch them at my parents' of course, but I don't think it would be a good idea for me to form too much of a continuing attachment to their house and amenities or I won't learn to live on my own. I don't like the thought of missing anime night on TV on Fridays either! *cries*

One of the series I got was Escaflowne. I'm rapidly re-watching it, and I have to agree with what I read on the internet years ago - the real theme song is better than the techno tune that was made for the American version on TV. I mean, I never had a burning hatred for the techno one like other people, but the Japanese song definitely has more depth to it. ...And I'm also seeing the parts that were edited out of the TV version. I had always wondered what the heck the doppelganger did to Miguel. In the TV version, you saw his long fingers approach Miguel's shoulder from the darkness behind him and then you saw Miguel's eyes with a look of shock in them. Then it became clear that the doppelganger had killed him, but how exactly not so clear. I'd always assumed it was some weird mind ability he either already had or gained from the priest he took the body of to cause an aneurysm in his brain or some kind of deadly nerve pinch thing on the shoulder. Well no... The unedited version makes it quite apparent that Miguel was in fact strangled to death.

I also got Neon Genesis Evangelion because I've heard a lot about it but never had the opportunity to see it on TV. Fafner and a bunch of other animes supposedly got many of their plot ideas from NGE, so I want to see the original famed series. I don't want to rush through it like with Escaflowne since it is my first time with it and want to enjoy it slowly, as I would the first time for any show aired on TV. As such, I guess I'll just have to wait until I figure out what to do about that after moving.

There isn't much new at work right now other than we're running out of time. I've finally finished posting almost all of December to the database now, but we're still waiting on two batches that are missing information and can't be posted until we have that information. It's very aggravating, and it makes me feel like I've failed to finish December, never mind January and February. I ran a query for a co-worker to print off some more tax receipts for the other entries from December, so we can at least get those out the door.

Oh yeah, 2 more people are quitting. That brings the total number of people who have left since I came to 18 and leaves only 3 people within the organization who have been around longer than me (5 months), with only 2 of those 3 here at the office in Calgary.

Going out with the girls on Valentines evening fortunately didn't turn out as I had feared it might. They didn't bring their boyfriends after all. I guess they had planned to turn Wednesday into a mere social evening and leave the romantic stuff to the weekend or something. I should have known better with my annoying co-worker coming along.

On that note, I can't get my mind off of my personal life... or the lack thereof. I have no friends, close or otherwise, offline/locally right now, and no significant other of course. It's the latter that bothers me the most by far, but I have such a hard time mentioning it to anyone in the slightest. It seems so embarassing, and I don't know anyone well enough to talk to about it or for it to seem appropriate or comfortable for me to talk about it. I've been in this phase many other times, but nothing ever came of it any of those times. Perhaps as with the moving, I might actually make some progress this time. Maybe. It would require confidence, though, and I still don't have that. Hell, I think I have even less than I did the last time I was so down about this. I somehow managed to pull off getting the apartment out of some kind of necessity/desperation, but I don't think building a relationship would be able to work the same way... obviously. Every time I think about it, it seems like I'd have to become someone else to achieve it. Even if I could do that, I could never be comfortable with it... I'd feel fake.

But every time I just "try to be myself", I wind up realizing there really isn't much of myself left. I feel so empty. Even when I'm not deathly nervous in social situations, I still can't think of anything to say or how to say it. My mind's just blank. If I can remember the small talk chatter that has been suggested to me, I can never deliver it properly. I don't know how to talk about the weather for 10 minutes, nor do I care much about the weather at the core of it. Communication is such an essential thing within human society, as with intimacy, but I seem so distant from both. Beyond the face to face difficulties, I'm finding it harder and harder to communicate in a textual medium online, which isn't good. The online world used to be the one place where I could open up, but now even it is shrinking, or I am shrinking from it.

I feel like I'm disappearing. Sometimes I don't even feel that I am a person. After all, I don't really have any interests or outright passions. I don't have a life. And I don't see myself having a future, as much as I try to visualise it.

Staff Christmas Dinner

Sun, 03 Dec 2006 05:26:36 GMT

I went to the Christmas dinner for the organization I work for last night. It was at this incredibly small Italian restaurant. The place was packed despite being so tiny, though, and the food was quite good.

They served either brushetta or salad as appetizers, and I chose the brushetta. However, the brushetta at this place was unlike any brushetta I've ever had. First of all, it had cheese on top. I'm not a huge fan of cheese and don't particularly like it most of the time, but I admit there was a certain practicality in having the cheese keep everything on the bread. Usually a bunch of the tomatoes fall off as you eat it. ^_^;

Then I detected something fishy and salty in it as well and thought it was oysters. Everyone was thinking I was crazy until a co-worker started eating hers and declared that she could definitely taste something fishy too. We eventually came to the conclusion that they were probably anchovies. ^^

I also had three glasses of red wine, which is the most alcohol I've ever had. As I explained in a previous journal entry, I don't care for alcohol, but it serves the purpose of removing some of my pesky introvert nature. I have to say that I couldn't really tell any major difference between one glass of wine and three. I'm already a little bit off balance after one (Body Mass Index of about 19 :P), so it was pretty much the same upon completing three.

No hangover in the slightest this morning, so I guess I haven't reached the point of getting drunk yet. To be honest, I don't really have any intention of ever hitting that stage of alcohol consumption. It just seems silly to me to drink that much, waste so much money on the alcohol, risk acting totally stupid because you're drunk, suffer the aftermath later, etc. when you can get basically all the benefits of drinking from just the first few glasses/bottles.

Many staff from the organization's regional offices were there too. The person heading up the Edmonton office was there, and I was surprised to see how young she was. I mean, I was used to the young age level of employees at the Canadian Cancer Society, but that hasn't really been the case at the office here in Calgary for this organization. Anyhow, she was really nice and provided a lot of fun conversation, as was another guy from the Lethbridge location. Apparently he's legally blind, and yet you wouldn't know it from the way he interacts!

We also had a gift exchange where we bought an inexpensive item, set it on a table, and then picked someone else's from the table later. I actually got something this time; usually I forget about those kind of things and feel bad about it. The fun part was that people could steal someone else's chosen gift if they didn't like the one they picked. As such, we had several rounds of people stealing certain gifts back and forth, which was rather amusing. ^o^

~Centauri~
Guardian Archives

Fafner!

Sun, 19 Nov 2006 07:27:36 GMT

I'm a bit excited with the arrival of my Fafner DVDs earlier this week (along with the soundtrack of course ^_~). I'd found the series in a regular video rental store and wound up watching the first three volumes from there. Unfortunately, none of the rental stores ever had any of the DVDs past the third volume, and eventually those disappeared too. I decided I liked the 12 episodes that I'd seen enough to warrant buying the series since I'd probably be watching it again beyond just watching the rest of the show.

I saw the first episode of the fourth volume Thursday night, and it answered so many questions I had been left hanging with for so long! I'm going to try to hold back my eagerness and keep to watching only one episode a week so I can enjoy it over a larger period of time and not spoil it all in one sitting. ^_^

~Centauri~
Guardian Archives

Stupid Work

Thu, 09 Nov 2006 05:32:18 GMT

Augh! My boss is driving me crazy!

Top annoying things about her:

No apparent concept of personal space. She sticks her face extremely close to the proximity of my face when talking to me, puts her hands all over my shoulders sometimes, reaches to point to something on the computer screen with her arm right in my face... etc.

Continuing on the point that she doesn't seem to understand personal barriers, she has the annoying habit of plopping her hands down on the back of the chair sometimes if she doesn't put them on my shoulders instead. She puts all her weight into it, so the back of the chair tips back, forcing the bottom part into my back.

Still more personal space issues, except this one's kind of dangerous. When explaining things while holding a pen in her hand (which is... always), she tends to wiggle the pen RIGHT NEXT TO MY EYE! Damn it. >_<

She's always asking "Are we happy? :) :) :) :) :) :) :)" of me and the other data entry guy with an absurd look on her face. I think the smileys summarize it effectively.

She's always asking "Are we happy? :) :) :) :) :) :) :)" TEN $#%&ING TIMES in the period of an hour! No, I'm not any closer to enlightenment than the last nine times you asked!

Often something weird will come up in the work that I require clarification on and she totally misses what I'm asking and drones on about how to do the normal routine that obviously I already know and wasn't asking about.

For instance, I found an entry this morning where the person who wrote it up said there were two parts to be put in but gave only one amount to enter, so I went to my boss to ask if I would have to split up the amount in some way between the two parts or put it in as only one part. She takes one look at the sheet and starts rhyming off to me how to data enter this type of entry, ie: codes, the date, what the amount written on the sheet is, and the overall program this is going into. Everything I already knew. I try to explain to her that I already know all that and try to re-explain the actual question. She just gets frustrated and rattles off again what the codes are, points to the date, points to the amount, tells me what program it goes under. Damn it! That's not what I was asking! Then she takes a harder look at the information on the sheet and 30 seconds later she informs me that the person who wrote up the form did it incorrectly and that there are two parts on the page but only one amount - all as if she hadn't heard me say it and had apparently just discovered it herself. WTF?

In another incident later this afternoon, she called me in to show me a spreadsheet she was working on that I would later be data entering from. She told me about how she was having to delete rows out because all sorts of different parts with different codes and belonging to different programs were mixed in together. Then I forget how we got onto it exactly, but she started talking about how some of these parts seemed to be from a past month's spreadsheet and said something that confused me on which spreadsheet I'd be working on exactly. So I sought clarification:

Me: So I'm going to be working on that spreadsheet...? *indicates spreadsheet currently being worked on by her*

Her: No, no, no, nooooo! You're going to be working on this spreadsheet I'm working on right now! *points to same spreadsheet that I pointed to*

Me: ...okay.

So that's the list. I'd add more, but it'd just be more useless ranting.

I'd say something to her about some of this stuff, but first of all, I'm too polite. Second, I'm honestly not sure she'd understand what I'm saying judging by the really poor communication we have going with everything else.

I'm not sure how long I'll remain at this job. *sighs*

~Centauri~
Guardian Archives

Gundam Seed OST Track Listing

Mon, 09 Oct 2006 18:29:51 GMT

I created a track listing for the soundtracks, if it is of any interest to anyone:

http://www.guardianarchives.com/GundamSeedOST_TrackListings.pdf

~Centauri~
Guardian Archives

Post-Thanksgiving

Mon, 09 Oct 2006 17:59:51 GMT

Well the Thanksgiving evening was excellent. I had a pretty good time, and I have to say that I think I consumed the most alcohol I've ever had. I wasn't drunk, but I was definitely a little tipsy after two glasses of the red wine. My brother found it funny that I had a low tolerance, but I think it's great since that means I wouldn't have to spend a great deal of money to get a buzz. :P

I have a low body mass for a guy, though, so it's no surprise. I thought there was some kind of conversion where a glass of wine equals a bottle of beer, and I've had two bottles of beer before. I'm guessing the heavier concentration of alcohol in the wine meant that I was taking in the same amount of alcohol in a shorter period of time, plus there was less water to dilute the alcohol in my body.

Anyhow, it worked like a charm. I don't like alcohol and I hardly ever consume it, but it does indeed remove some of that pesky introvertedness in social situations. The evening was a blast.

The food was great; the company was great. It was a wonderful Thanksgiving all 'round! ^_^

~Centauri~
Guardian Archives

West Coast Photos

Tue, 26 Sep 2006 04:41:36 GMT

The Gundam Seed soundtracks came today and man were they worth the wait. They're AWESOME. No exaggeration there whatsoever. I've listened to all but the fourth one so far, and I haven't heard a single track I don't like. The series has so many great background tunes!

The only downer is that most of the song titles are in Japanese, so I'm not sure what to write down for those I post in my LJ's music line. ^_^;

If anyone's thinking about getting them, they're the Original SoundTracks (OST), 1 - 4. And don't be confused by Gundam Seed Destiny; that's the series that comes after Gundam Seed. There are quite a few CDs that pop up when one searches for "Gundam Seed" on Amazon!

Anyways, without further ado, here are the pictures from the west coast that I have been promising:

A great blue heron wades through the deeper waters to search for fish.

Another shot of the elegant heron

The heron makes a catch!

A view of the beach

There are always plenty of Canada Geese out on the beach.

One particular individual feeds on some sea grass (that's the technical term! :P).

Yummy!

Something that birdwatchers quickly come to learn is that there is no actual species called "sea gull". There are actually many different species of gulls, and they are not always easy to distinguish from one another.

This appears to be a Bonaparte's Gull in non-breeding plummage.

And here is a Bonaparte's Gull in breeding plummage.

Like gulls, there are an annoyingly large number of similar sandpiper species.
I think this guy is a semipalmated sandpiper.

More of the sandpiper

The little sandpipers generally feed in flocks.

Look out for the alligator!

I'm joking of course. It kind of looks like it, though, doesn't it?

A ring-billed gull dashes across the sand.

Another ring-billed gull

The ring-billed gull poses for the camera.

This Canada Goose's neck was more brownish than the usual black.

A bunch of geese gracefully paddle through a section of water while others peck at vegetation on the open beach.

My brother took a picture of a flat fish that I managed to catch. This flat fish is a very common one to find, along with a narrow kind that we unfortunately didn't get a shot of even though I caught some (I thought we had taken one - darn!). I believe the fish that the heron caught in that other picture is one of these narrow fish.

A small hermit crab

Ha! I took much better shots of the sea anemones than I did in 2003.
Thank you, my wonderful digital camera!

Another sea anemone

A deceased anemone

The sea anemone's tentacles bend in the flowing water,
waiting for some food to pass into them.

The sea anemone curls in on itself when disturbed.

This starfish had seen better days

Old tree trunks are sometimes found out on the beach.

A gull sets down after flying around the beach.

After doing a fair bit of digging through the bird books, I think the brownish gulls are just immature individuals. Of what particular species, though, I'm not even going to try guessing.

This gull seemed to be bathing in the warmth of the sun.

Judging by the red dot on the bill, the pinkish legs, and the grey tail feathers, I think this is a glaucous-winged gull.

Bird sand prints

I thought this was a neat picture of the gull's feathers as it was taking off.

Another immature gull I assume

A view of the ocean from the rim of the beach at low tide.

The beating of the waves leaves a cool pattern on the sand below.

I came across a neat spot where many shells had gathered in low areas of the sand.

A group of ducks feeds at high tide.
I wasn't able to get any close shots so as to attempt to identify them.

A sea gull walks through the water in search of food.

I think this is a Spotted Towhee.

It was either that or a dark-eyed junco (sub-species Oregon). White spots on the back would confirm it, but I didn't get any shots of the bird's back sadly. However, the bird's behaviour of pecking through dead leaves in the bushes matched that of the towhee's description. The relative size of the bird is also probably closer to the towhee's rather than the junco's. My Albertan and Coastal B.C. books give the towhee a yellowish beak, but the big Canadian bird book and my calendar with a real photo both show the towhee with a black beak.

More of the towhee

There was a small bunny hanging around the resort too.

It's not a great image, but the west coast has its own version of the American Crow: the Northwestern Crow. They appear a bit smaller and slimmer to me.

Two herons pass by each other

My dad went kayaking across the peaceful bay during the evening several times.

For those who are interested, I've also created a sort of bird list check-off page under the Information section in the Guardian Archives. Various birds (mostly those found in Alberta) are listed, and I've highlighted and/or put up photos of the ones I've seen.

And for those who might have missed it, check out The Adventures of Harold the Heron! :D

~Centauri~
Guardian Archives

Harold the Heron!

Sat, 16 Sep 2006 02:30:16 GMT

As a prelude to the west coast photos that shall be posted soon, I present:

~Centauri~
Guardian Archives

Buller Pass Hike

Mon, 11 Sep 2006 01:44:43 GMT

One of many beautiful shots of the surrounding rock, lush forest, and baby blue sky.

A tiny insect searches for some nectar from the flower.

We encountered this bird along our travels, but I have not been able to identify it. The long beak makes it look somewhat like a woodpecker, yet no woodpecker in any of my books looks like this bird. Other possibilities I considered were the Gray Jay and Clark's Nutcracker, but that bill is too long for the former and I couldn't be positive of whether or not it had the required patch of black on its back to be a nutcracker.

An important thing to observe in this photo is the twig sticking out of the tree branch on the left side. In the next two pictures, the bird's position makes it look like the twig is its tail feathers, which is deceptive of the true length of the feathers.

As luck would have it, the bird would not turn its head my way while the sun was out.

Once the sun passed behind the clouds again, the bird obliged with another head shot. However, the quality of the photo suffered in the poor lighting.

It remains a mystery bird as such.

The forest grew sparser the further up we climbed.

A large portion of rock extending above the vegetation.

A waterfall we stumbled across along the path.

More of the mountains surrounding us

Some of these shots need no words, so I'll just do as I did with another hike's photos and only say something from here on as needed.

My dad theorized that this basin becomes a small lake during spring time flooding.

The trees gave way to fields of wildflowers as we went further up.

A view of the valley we came through from the top of the pass.

We think this is Mount Assiniboine seen from afar.

This gives you an idea of the incredible zoom on my camera if you look at the same peak in the previous photo (top right) when the zoom wasn't used.

Past the forest and fields, there is only barren rock and snow.

The mountains and valleys beyond the edge of the pass.

I thought the flat slope of this mountain was kind of neat looking.

Ribbon Lake far below

~Centauri~
Guardian Archives

More Nature Pictures... Finally!

Tue, 05 Sep 2006 03:40:06 GMT

After the news of Steve Irwin's death, I suppose it's ever more fitting to put up an entry with photographs of wildlife. I'm afraid I don't have any crocodiles to display, though. :P

Our usual nesting robins had four offspring this year, and all survived!

More of the chicks

I made a trip to Fish Creek Park in southern Calgary at one point and took some photos. There were a bunch of ravens, but unfortunately I didn't get any decent shots of them.

Here you can see a white-breasted nuthatch poised on a branch.

I discovered that our native red squirrels still survive in the park. The black ones originally from Toronto dominate everywhere else.

The last Bohemian Waxwings to be seen before heading north for the summer.

On several walks through a park-like area in our neighborhood, I had heard a new birdcall I didn't recognize and tried to track down the source. It was a small bird, but it didn't allow me to get close enough or in a visible enough spot for me to get a good shot.

Then I started hearing the same call in our own backyard, and I managed to get the little guy on camera when he came to feed on spilled birdseed. Say hello to the Oregon Junco folks!

The junco from the side

A "murder" of crows hangs out in their usual spot in our neighborhood. They must like the view of downtown!

We had a robin this year who perched in our tree out front day after day, singing his song in an attempt to find a mate and/or establish territory. I don't know if he succeeded because no nest ever appeared in that tree.

I saw a magpie fiddling with this bundle of sticks, so I suspect it was a nest in the works.

We've occasionally seen hares bounding through our neighborhood; here is one such fellow.

More of the hare

The hare obliges us with a close-up.

This is probably the last robin I will have a picture of for 2006. The individual above was in an aerial dispute with a magpie just before the photo was taken.

EDIT:
I also saw some white-crowned sparrows a couple times, foraging busily beneath a bunch of thick bushes. I never managed to get any pictures of them, though. It was so cool to see them, however, because I hadn't seen any native sparrows before that (other than the juncos). House sparrows originally came from Europe and aren't part of the same family of birds as the native sparrows.

~Centauri~
Guardian Archives

Survey

Sat, 02 Sep 2006 20:15:03 GMT

If I were a month I would be: September (my own birth month)
If I were a day of the week I would be: Friday (work is ending, the weekend is beginning, and many of the best shows are on Friday night!)
If I were a time of day I would be: Midnight (I'm a night owl)
If I were a planet I would be: An ancient world of a lost civilization orbiting a star deep in the galactic core of the Milky Way galaxy
If I were a sea animal I would be: A dolphin
If I were a direction I would be: West
If I were a piece of furniture I would be: That old but comfy sofa in the basement
If I were a sin I would be: Sloth
If I were a historical figure I would be: This is a tough one, but I'd say offhand Giuseppe Garibaldi
If I were a liquid I would be: Orange juice
If I were a stone, I would be: Corundum (specifically a sapphire)
If I were a tree, I would be: Cedar
If I were a bird, I would be: A northern flicker
If I were a tool, I would be: A ruler
If I were a flower/plant, I would be: Yarrow (my favourite)
If I were a kind of weather, I would be: A soft shower of rain
If I were a musical instrument, I would be: Drums
If I were an animal, I would be: A bird (specific kind already stated above of course)
If I were a color, I would be: Azure, cobalt, lazuli, sapphire, indigo... otherwise known as blue :D
If I were an emotion, I would be: Brooding
If I were a vegetable, I would be: Corn (come on - tortilla chips, tacos, popcorn, corn on the cob - what a wonderful vegetable!)
If I were a sound, I would be: A klaxon
If I were an element, I would be: Air/wind/sky
If I were a car, I would be: Chevrolet Camaro
If I were a song, I would be: I can't pick one; there are too many I like equally (I would more likely be soundtrack background music than mainstream songs, though)
If I were a poem, I would be written by: Robert Frost
If I were a food, I would be: Chicken a la King or some dish with combinations of salmon, tuna, and/or rice
If I were a place, I would be: A lunar base/colony
If I were a material, I would be: Titanium
If I were a taste, I would be: Mint
If I were a scent, I would be: The smell of freshly baked bread
If I were a word, I would be: Irresolute
If I were an object, I would be: "Object" is so broad, encompassing so many things. I can't think of a single object that represents me.
If I were a body part I would be: The brain
If I were a facial expression I would be: Nonchalant
If I were a subject in school I would be: Social Studies/History/Geography
If I were a cartoon character I would be: Anime included within "cartoon"? Bear from .hack//SIGN
If I were a shape I would be a: Sphere
If I were a number I would be: 7
If I were a sport I would be: Badminton
If I were a season I would be: Summer

For those who want to copy and paste the formatted survey template into their journals:

If I were a month I would be: 
If I were a day of the week I would be: 
If I were a time of day I would be: 
If I were a planet I would be: 
If I were a sea animal I would be: 
If I were a direction I would be: 
If I were a piece of furniture I would be: 
If I were a sin I would be: 
If I were a historical figure I would be: 
If I were a liquid I would be: 
If I were a stone, I would be: 
If I were a tree, I would be: 
If I were a bird, I would be: 
If I were a tool, I would be: 
If I were a flower/plant, I would be: 
If I were a kind of weather, I would be: 
If I were a musical instrument, I would be: 
If I were an animal, I would be: 
If I were a color, I would be: 
If I were an emotion, I would be: 
If I were a vegetable, I would be: 
If I were a sound, I would be: 
If I were an element, I would be: 
If I were a car, I would be: 
If I were a song, I would be: 
If I were a poem, I would be written by: 
If I were a food, I would be: 
If I were a place, I would be: 
If I were a material, I would be: 
If I were a taste, I would be: 
If I were a scent, I would be: 
If I were a word, I would be: 
If I were an object, I would be: 
If I were a body part I would be: 
If I were a facial expression I would be: 
If I were a subject in school I would be: 
If I were a cartoon character I would be: 
If I were a shape I would be a: 
If I were a number I would be: 
If I were a sport I would be: 
If I were a season I would be:

I finally figured out which Gundam Seed soundtracks I wanted from the slew available on Amazon and ordered them. Now to wait and see if all of the themes I like are on them. ^_^;

~Centauri~
Guardian Archives

Poem!

Tue, 22 Aug 2006 00:14:34 GMT

I have decided to share a poem I wrote that I must say turned out to be quite touching, inspiring, and full of feeling. Please let me know what wonderful sensations it evokes in yourself! :D

Ode to Binary

00110101101111011110111
001101101010001101
1010100011010111111100
0001010110000110101

001111110000000111110011000000
00110011010111111
0110100001010001111100011011
011100010111011000101011001

1111110101001101101010110
01100110010100001010101
0110110000010010111001010010101100
01001001110110010110011000110110

01011001101100000010000
0011001101001100011000000111
001101100010110101000
10111001010100111000011

11110010011001101011110110110001
10001100011011110000010110010101
00110010001001110001110000011
01101101101001100101000001011

0000101101001001100111000
01100000011111110001100111
001101011011100001000000101001
1100001101110111101111000100

0000000100011001111111001000001
0001100110110011000110100

~Centauri~
Guardian Archives

Quizzie

Sat, 19 Aug 2006 02:54:50 GMT

If You Ruled the Land . . . by wackyweasel

Your first name:

How you gained your rule:

Your title is:

Your Majesty - straight-up, no fuss

Your symbol is:

a red dragon - fiery and hot, like you!

You rule from:

an ice palace - cold, but so, well, cool!

At your side is:

your Royal Chocolate Carrier

Your enforcers, troops, and guards are all:

trained animals of many species, all named Fluffy

Your most popular law is:

Kareoke Wednesdays, with prizes! EVERYWHERE!!

Your least popular law is:

Regulation of a national favorite color

Your worst enemy is:

your court jester's awful nun joke

Your popularity rating is:: 28%

Your chance of being overthrown is:: 78%

Quiz created with MemeGen!

Those last two numbers are of some concern. Where's Karl when you need him?

Does that also mean Dick Cheney is the chocolate carrier? o.o

Um... Update Time

Sat, 19 Aug 2006 01:54:55 GMT

Well as an update to the last entry, I completed the .hack games a few weeks ago. I still have Quarantine's great big item quest to finish, but that'll take some time. ^_^'

I've been looking for a second job for a while now. I got an interview at one point but never received any further word on it after completing the interview. However, there was a call this morning to set up an interview with me. The job involves working with a database that uses the Raiser's Edge program, which is the same one the Canadian Cancer Society's system uses. I mentioned working with the program at the CCS in my cover letter and e-mail; I suppose I finally had something specific to attract attention to myself. Yay!

I'm going on vacation with my family to Vancouver Island next week, which should be fun. I was going to leave tomorrow with Dad and Alex, but because I now have the job interview Monday morning, I'll be flying out with Mom instead. No carry-on gels, liquids, and electronics I guess.

~Centauri~
Guardian Archives

.hack Games

Mon, 12 Jun 2006 05:11:04 GMT

I finally got the .hack games. Well most of them anyways. 1, 3, and 4 were available but not 2. I went ahead and ordered despite that. Now that I've finished Infection (#1), though, I'm stuck waiting because I'm not going to skip ahead without playing Mutation (#2).

I beat Skeith (the final boss for game 1 essentially) Wednesday night to complete Infection. Yikes. The combination of Skeith, the field BlackRose and I were in, and the background music totally creeped me out. I just kept thinking, "OMG, we're gonna die, we're gonna die!" We'd both take whacks at him, he'd then either smash down on us, use his Judgment ability on us (freezes you in ice blocks which then explode at the most erie point in the background music), or Data Drain us, and then I would frantically use up the Health Drinks to get our HP back up because all three attacks were devastating. To add to that, our actual attacks were useless since Skeith is an immortal monster who can only be defeated via Data Drain. So you had to keep attacking in the hopes that the Data Break thing would pop up so you could Data Drain Skeith before running out of Health Drinks and both characters dying. :(

Eventually the option came up and I successfully data drained him. But that left Skeith in a mortal form with 5000 hit points, and his ability to smash down and cause massive damage was still there, along with various hindering spells. Since I ran out of Health Drinks soon after the data drainage, I backed off to a decently safe distance and let BlackRose take out this mortal Skeith while I consistantly healed her with the slower acting La Repth ability which draws from my SP.

Gah. This got a lot more descriptive than I had planned for. I've probably lost anyone who hasn't actually played the game. ^_^; Well after Skeith died, it had a video clip where a much larger monster came out of the rubble of Skeith. At the time, this freaked me out because before we started fighting Skeith, the introduction video called the whole thing "Phase 1" of Skeith. So naturally I started worrying if this was now Phase 2. I kept thinking, "Oh please no... no no no... please don't make me fight this thing now..." The video didn't feature BlackRose in it, so I started wondering if the game was going to make me face off against this second form of Skeith with no Health Drinks and no BlackRose. AH!!! Fortunately, this turned out not to be the case. Helba warped me out of there and made note of the new monster being called "Cubia". Oh thank god for that mysterious hacker.

I'm so obsessed with this game. I love .hack! ^_^

Anyways, so now I've just been leveling up a bit more, but it's getting increasingly hard to do so since the highest level field I can access in game 1 is 30 and my level was already 35 upon facing Skeith. You get less and less experience points for monsters on lower levels, so now I understand what characters meant in the anime about how hard it is to reach a really high level. I'm guessing that the fields and dungeon levels only go up so far and don't get to 99, but I'm not sure. It would make sense to make maxing out a real challenge.

My grandparents were around for about a week, so I've also been busy with that. It's not just the game that has kept me occupied! It was good to see them again and do some things with them while they were here. ^^

I haven't updated my online journal with an actual entry in a long time. I feel like I must be missing so much content that needs to be said, but I don't know what to add. Hmm...

~Centauri~
Guardian Archives

Saint Patrick's Day

Fri, 17 Mar 2006 14:24:19 GMT

Happy St. Patrick's Day everyone! ^_^

I read a short article on Yahoo just now on the odds of finding a four leaf clover. Apparently it's 10,000 to 1. I must have been lucky because I actually found one when I was about 10. That was pretty cool. :D

~Centauri~
Guardian Archives

Nature Pictures pt. 3

Wed, 01 Feb 2006 01:42:43 GMT

What is this mysterious bird in the dead of winter?

There were many of them sitting in the trees.

They're robins! In winter! I'd heard about some of them overwintering in Calgary but had never found any until now. I last counted 10 of them flocking together. They seem to hang around a thick line of evergreen trees for shelter with the continued food source of several mountain ashes nearby.

I discovered them after I started hearing a birdcall that I couldn't immediately place considering it was the middle of winter. Imagine my surprise when my analysis of it being a robin's call proved correct upon investigation!

Some of my shots started blurring due to the dying light of the evening unfortunately, but here's another image of one of the unmistakable robins.

Another robin poking around in the leaves for some grub.

The squirrel found something to eat.

I took this shot because of the vivid colour of this tree's branches.

Another squirrel

This guy was missing a tail. The squirrel is one of many that come to feed on the birdseed that falls out of the feeder above. Some of them even dare to try to jump onto the feeder to get at the food there.

A magpie inspects the tree branch for something edible.

This magpie appeared to be searching for something in the bark too.

I kept this shot of the magpie flying away just to show the iridescent quality of their tail feathers.

I noticed a bird fly onto a tree top above and zoomed in to find a northern flicker.

I tracked the northern flicker down to get another shot. He finally obliged. :D

I found some robins in an evergreen tree close to the house too. I don't know if they were just passing through, though. I haven't seen them there since, unlike the robins in the other spot that continued to show up.

One of the robins in flight.

Another robin (with head pointed up - the white is the underside of the neck)

I meet up with the robins in the first area again and took some more pictures.

Many of them seem to have molted their usual orange feathers, causing much of the white to show from underneath.

This individual almost doesn't seem like a robin with all the white!

More of the new fashionable belly design that the robins are wearing for the winter season. :3

This robin had decided to stick with more of the classic orange look than the others.

~Centauri~
Guardian Archives

Nature Pictures pt. 2

Mon, 30 Jan 2006 23:30:45 GMT

During winter, flocks of Bohemian Waxwings migrate south from northern Alberta. They arrive in the hundreds to feast upon whatever berries are left on various trees and bushes.

Anyways, here is a particular flock in flight.

Some waxwings settle into a coniferous tree to keep watch for predators while others pick at berries in the trees and bushes below.

A close-up of one of the sentinel waxwings.

This image shows you just how many waxwings can be be in a good sized flock.

A downy woodpecker scales up a branch in the search for bugs.

More waxwings in flight

Mmm, berries!

A magpie observes all the activity of the waxwings.

The waxwings peck away at the fruit of a mountain ash.

Many waxwings went after berries that had fallen off the trees onto the ice below.

Looks like I wasn't the only one who was avidly interested in the waxwings. Merlins hunt them during the winter.

The waxwings fly off to find another food source.

~Centauri~
Guardian Archives

Nature Pictures pt. 1

Mon, 30 Jan 2006 01:14:50 GMT

I've gotten a bit behind in posting my pictures. I had been waiting, thinking I continually needed more photos to have enough to post. As it turns out, I have three batches' worth!

As such, I aim to post the first bunch of them today and the next two tomorrow and the day after that respectively. ^_^

I finally managed to get a good shot of the blue jay that occasionally pops up in our neighborhood. And no, this guy isn't the weird magpie-looking hybrid. He's the real deal.

A lovely picture of dusk in Calgary.

I tracked down another Merlin! A male this time - you can tell by the bluish back.

The Merlin from the other side.

More of the Merlin. Though I didn't get any shots of it, some magpies came along and started harassing the poor guy. I've read that it's quite common to see members of the Corvidae family (crows, magpies, etc.) flock around birds of prey to harass them, but I had never seen it before myself. The magpie kept making quick flights to hover behind the Merlin, although being careful not to actually touch it. No doubt the magpie was smart enough to know not to push it since it wouldn't likely win in an actual brawl with the small falcon.

A white-breasted nuthatch pokes around for some food at the feeder.

The white-breasted nuthatch again.

The white-breasted nuthatch, as seen from the back.

A red-breasted nuthatch showed up as well.

A bunch of chickadees appeared for the chow too.

And then the house sparrows came along and bullied everyone else out for the birdseed.

Now for the photos from my trip to Ontario! A cardinal!

A quiet street in my grandparent's neighborhood.

There were many blue jays there.

Also in abundance were mourning doves, often perched on the power lines.

A close up of a particular mourning dove.

Another individual sitting in a tree.

There were squirrels in Ontario too of course.

I was quite elated to discover a Merlin in Ontario.

More of the Merlin

The Merlin silently sits on the aerial in the rain.

A chickadee inspects the bark of a tree for grub. Nuthatches were also present, but none of my shots of them turned out very well.

~Centauri~
Guardian Archives