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Jun. 19th, 2006 @ 08:55 pm how to feed yourself, part one
I do a fair bit of baking. I find it relaxing, plus i have a killer sweet tooth, and anything made from scratch is better tasting, healthier, and usually cheeper than what you buy at the supermarket. I tend to stick a few standards: Banana Bread (with chocolate chips or cranberries), sugar cookies around Christmas. On occasion, i would make choclate chip cookies, but much less often that the others. Until now, anyways.One thing I started to really learn last summer was how different ingredients affect the final product; eggs give consistency, baking soda makes it fluffier, salt neutralizes the bitterness from the bakind soda. And the ratio of white sugar to brown sugar determines how soft a chocolate cookie is. The recipe i used to use produces a very crunchy cookie, not my preference. So i looked around the old interweb for a "chewy" recipe, and tried one that has worked perfectly. I doubled it, of course, letting one batch last for 3 days in my house instead of 2. And I use vegetable oil instead of butter, becuase butter is a pain to measure, soften and mix when i could just poor out of a bottle. For banana bread i use olive oil, but when I used some olive oil for the cookies, a few of them kinda tasted like olive oil, so i'm sticking to canola oil for tonights batch. The other trick i have found with cookies is, when they tell you how much chocolate chips to use, they tend to say "1 small package". This is a huge load of crap, unless there are small, snack size bags of chips. I just judge by eye how many to poor in to the batter, but it's closer to 1/4 of the bag i've got, and even one of the smaller bags would be too much. You'd just have chips left i the bole that you couldn't get to stick in the batter. wasted.

Anyway, here is the (doubled) recipe, with instructions.
Mix 1 cup of butter (or vegetable oil), 1 cup of brown sugar, and 1/2 cup of white sugar. MiX in 2 eggs and 1 tsp of vanilla.
Seperately, combine 2 1/4 cups flour, 1 tsp of salt, and 1 tsp baking soda. To combine the wet and dry ingredients, a mixer will not work very well, so use a wooden spoon, or do like i do and get in there with your (clean!) hands. After the flour is well mixed in, add an appropriate amount of chocalate chips and mix. Bake at 325 degrees for about 6 min or until they start to brown. About 10 mins with my oven.

Update: they lasted two whole days. oh well.
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May. 28th, 2006 @ 08:22 am it's all Pat's fault
Current Mood: awake
If you are kind enough to leave a comment on this entry,

1. I'll respond with something random about you
2. I'll challenge you to try something
3. I'll pick a color that I associate with you
4. I'll tell you something I like about you
5. I'll tell you my first/clearest memory of you
6. I'll tell you what animal you remind me of
7. I'll ask you something I've always wanted to ask you
8. If I do this for you, you must post this on yours
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May. 27th, 2006 @ 08:16 pm Sometimes even super-heroes get thirsty
Current Mood: content
Tags: ,
Pat asked me, when did I first get into comics?

The best dating tool i have, is probably the cards. I have most of the Marvel Series 2 trading cards. These are all dated 1991. I also have alot more comics from that year than I usually remember. All Marvel stuff. I've got the Infinity Guantlet, a short run of Adam Strange from '92, a couple of West Coast Avengers, and perhaps most notably, although i woldn't have noted at the time, a few issues from McFarlane's run in Spiderman. Huh, i guess those Super Mario Brothers comics are from '91 to. Funny to think that all of those are from the same year.
Anyways, i always read cartoons, like Farside, Calvin and Hobbes, Dilbert, and I used to read the ones in Dragon Magazine, at the library.
In '95, i picked up a whole bunch of DC comics from "Zero Hour", and from 96 I have a few Superboys, and a Batman annual, future thing.

Almost forgot; In 1993, i had a subscription to Spiderman 2099. That one was about new versions of the traditional Marvel heroes in the year 2099, mostly dealing with a society in which giant corporations had replaced governments. Corps controlling the world, what imaginations those writers had! Ha. ha. ha. sigh. I remember choosing that title because it was a whole new thing: I have issues 1-13, and issue one of Doom 2099 (Doctor Doom reapears spontaneously in the middle of Latveria, and sets out to retake his country from the big evil company. Ended up taking over, and saving, the world).

Which is funny, because just this past week, i suddenly decided to subscribe to 52, DC's new weekly comic which will run for 52 issues to fill in the gap between "Infinite Crisis" (IeIeIe-I, Superboys dead) and "One Year Later", when Batman, Wonderwoman and Superman come back. Having a decent job lets me do crazy stuff like that. I probably won't get any more subscriptions, or renew that one, but that's just because i realised it's simpler and cheaper just to go to the shop in the Mall, which is right across from the library. Where I coincidently also borrow various graphic novels. Also going to be getting Shadowpact, about a team of magic-related superheroes, including Detective Chimp. He's a talking chimp, who's a detective! And an alcoholic. Going to check out some other new series in the near future. For example, Garth Ennis has written another Kev miniseries. Oh, Mr. Ennis. You are so fucked in the head.

Why am I doing this all of a sudden? Well, it's a hobby that, doesn't cost too much, get's me away from the computer screen, and doesn't rely much on having other people around. That, and the major characters of 52 are Booster Gold and The Question. Booster is funny,and I love the Question. He's like Batman, only instead or having Bruce Wayne's wealth and childhood, he's got no facial features and paranoia.
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batman
May. 19th, 2006 @ 09:51 pm SIN Episodes: Emergence
Current Mood: content
Tags: ,
I preordered Emmergence over Steam on a whim, a way to get a Source engine fix before HL2 Episode One comes out at teh end of the month. It is very much an old-school shooter. It is pretty short, and there are only four weapons, including an incendiary grenade, but it is also only $20. One cool feature is that difilculty is chosen on a fairly broad sliding scale, after which the challenge system adjust the dificulty to match your preference and play. Four days after release, Ritual managed to put out a patch that fixed not only a bug in the challenge system, which made the dificulty near impossible for people who played a certain way, but also fix all the known porblems that were making the game crash for many people, including myself. Sadly, also for people like myself, with graphics cards like the Radeon 9000, who can't run using DirectX 9, there remains a problem that a certain bullet-time like effect in the game turns the screen dark green, so you can't see anything. This can be worked around by using a command line option to run in DirectX 7, but then the game doesn't look nearly as pretty.

Other than that, many are bothered by the end of the game, where you have to fight through wave after wave of chaingunners, who can do alot of damage, and take a lot of fire to kill. Fighting 20 of them in one game might be fun, 100 is not. Still, most of the game is exciting, and it takes nice advantage of Steams capabilities. medical stations use canisters of blue gas. You can put a canister into an empty station, eject one from the station, or break a loose canister to release the gas if their isn't a station around. The grenades light the area on fire, and i love burning things.

With the major bugs fixed, $20 seems good for this game. If Ritual gets a bit more creative with level design for the next episode, I may end up sticking with them for all eight planned episodes. On the other hand, if it's all just fighting, fighting, fighting, with interesting bits like the brief car scene few and far between, maybe i won't.

Oh yeah, and the menu music is really good. Unfortunately, it's DRMed because they are trying to get people to actually buy the soundtrack. I guess they think they are Bungie or something.
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May. 19th, 2006 @ 05:58 pm New X-men Trailer
Current Mood: mischievous
http://youtube.com/watch?v=uHYiWoiuwSs

Best Trailer ever. Really.
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Mar. 19th, 2006 @ 08:10 pm Weekend Update
Current Mood: okay
Current Music: CBC radio 3 podcast
Well, theres been a bit of progress in my life recently. Last week i had my 23 birthday. Yay, another reminder of the constant forward march of time. Also, i registered for a course from the University of Athabasca. History of Canada, from 1600-1867. The course officially begins on May 1st, but my materrials arrived yesterday. So i'm going to try and get a head start, maybe even be done the short essay by May. I'm alowed six months to finish, but if i can do it faster than that, more the better.

I recently read Superheroes and Philosophy by Morris and Morris. It's a somewhat interesting read, but will be far too superficial for anyone who has a strong interest in comic books or philosophy. Most of the superhero references used are from recent movies (X2, Spiderman) or DC's Kingdom Come, and as far as philosophy it seems to me they manage to get past Aristotle in maybe 2 of the essays. Right now I'm reading The Confusion, by Neal Stephenson, volume 2 of the Barouqe cycle. Set in the 17th century, it revolves around the progress of science, politics, war, sex, the evolution of comerce, and revenge. Which probably goes some way to explaining why it take three 900+ page volumes. The immersive, comprehensiveness of Stephenson's writing is amazing, and this, his most recent work, is far better read than his previous, Crytonomicon.

Continued March 22

Ah, gotta love taking days to finish a simple entry. Well, I'm actually starting my coursework tonight. I've already read the first chapter of the textbook. Try not to die of shock, anyone.

I had Media Player generate an audio cd's worth of what it thinks are my "favorites" to listen to while i study. It gave me 6 tracks from Clint Eastwood movies, Led Zeppelin's Ramble On, "Zelda 64 Ocarina Boogie OC Remix", 5 songs off of William Shatners last album, the themes from The Prisoner and Have Gun, Will Travel, one song off the Halo 2 soundtrack, and Cowgirl in the Sand. I'm not sure if that tells more about me, or the algorithms Media Player uses. I'm disapointed to find that that exact playlist is the only one it will generate by that method.

The media has been making a big deal for a while out of the increasing numbers of adult children living with their parents. It actually took a published scientific study to remind them that, one, on every other continent, staying at home until you get married, and possibly beyond, is the norm, and two, that some people actually enjoy their own childrens company. A shocking idea, I know.

Anyhow, i see this is starting to ramble, and I should get to reading the second chapter, so Tata For Now.
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Feb. 18th, 2006 @ 11:09 am NINJAAAAAA!
NEd

is a Tall True Ninja that eats Anything, has Acid-tipped Weapons, is Covered with Dirt, and throws Smoke Bombs.

Strength: 7 Agility: 7 Intelligence: 8



To see if your Super Battle Ninja can
defeat NEd, enter your name and choose an attack:

fights NEd using


I'm a Ninja, I'm a Ninja, It's your birthday, I'm a Ninja.
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rage
Feb. 15th, 2006 @ 08:39 pm FUCK your "open source"
Current Mood: angry
Current Music: Metric - The Police and the Private
So, I was thinking, hey, people seem to like Firefox, lot's of nice features to choose from. So i decide to try it out again. I install it, time to go grab some extensions.

Install Adblock.
Install Adblock.

"Software Installation is currently disabled. Click Edit Options... to enable it and try again."
Oh, ok.

Oh wait, there is no GODDAMN "don't install software" option.
Java is enabled, turning on/off "Warn me when web sites try to install extensions or themes" doesn't do it.

That's just spiffy. And by spiffy... i mean CRAP.
Back to IE I go.
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Jan. 11th, 2006 @ 10:16 pm I hope they get Johnny Depp to play Undead Ned
<td align="center"> QuizGalaxy.com!


Take this quiz at QuizGalaxy.com</td>


I finally finished reading Shogun. It's an excellent novel, but for me it was weighed down by the fact that my stack of books i need to read is two feet high. That, and i just wasn't always in the mood for detailed discussion of feudal Japanese sexual customs. I followed it up today by blazing throgh A Series of Unfortunate Events, since it's a short childrens novel. I'm going to do The End of Poverty next, since i'm already 50 pages or so into it, and i don't feel like starting another thousand page historical novel just yet.

I got Half-Life 2 on the weekend. Thus ended any productive use of my free time. I'm breaching the perimeter of Nova Prospekt now. This game is phenomenal. I like the physics better than i like real physics. My only wish is that the rag doll corpses could be interacted with normally; I can pick up a boat, but not a body. I can fling a live headcrap away from me, but not a dead one.
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wacky
Dec. 25th, 2005 @ 10:37 pm Advent Children
Current Mood: happy
It might be amusing to record my thoughts while a watch the movie:
SPOILER ALERT!

OOO, shiny.
Hey Cloud has actual asian facial features! Technology is amazing!
Ok, those three are creepy.
That is rather a lot of swords.
Shot in the face? Ouch? "Those were $200 sunglasses!" Ok, i've seen Mortal Kombat too often.
A team of 20 artists worked two years to produce the black leather textures for this movie.
NERD ALERT: oh, he must have a elemental-lighting materia in his arm thing.
I wonder if I can get that ring tone...
Absorbing materia? No fair ignoring slot limits!
Does aeris chest seam... larger to anyone?
CHILDREN OF THE CORN!
So, Vincent can fly now?
Bahamut, eh? Good thing it's not Knights of the Round, the movie would take 4 hours.
Whoah, Barrett took a trip in the Oh-SNAP!-machine.
I'm beginning to see why the Turks are getting their own game.
This chase scene is so much better than Matrix Reloaded
Just think, they could have made this movie, or cleared SETI's entire signal processing backlog.
Cloud is like a pretty looking, less confident Chuck Norris
Tied around his arm... is that Ribbon?
Silly badguy, two blades makes a better razor, not sword.
Sephiroth.... SWORDED.
What, an entire movie and not one chocobo?
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Dec. 11th, 2005 @ 10:03 pm Talking to "God"
From a session with http://www.titane.ca/concordia/dfar251/igod/main.html



Me:
God?
God:
GOD rules.
Me:
what does he rule?
God:
I think he does whatever he wants.
Me:
should not you know?
God:
I think I should.
Me:
than you should
God:
I'll take that under advisement.
Me:
aren't you supposed to be all knowing?
God:
No, I am only partly knowing.
Me:
what good are you then?
God:
I can ask my botmaster.
Me:
god has a master?
God:
I am a Christian.
Me:
you believe in you?
God:
Yes I believe in it, do you?
Me:
no
God:
Do you consider yourself to be a moral person?
Me:
yes
God:
Uh.
Me:
what?
God:
Are you confused?
Me:
you seem to be.
God:
I haven't heard anything like that before: said I be.
Me:
you are
God:
No I am not.
Me:
are too
God:
I really couldn't say for sure.
Me:
but you could
God:
How?
Me:
you are god
God:
Yup. That's me alright.
Me:
god could
God:
I am a Christian.
Me:
no
God:
Are you serious?
Me:
yes
God:
I can't believe it.
Me:
believe it
God:
"it" being me?
Me:
no
God:
Are you serious?
Me:
yes
God:
I can't believe it.
Me:
you should
God:
I'll take that under advisement.
Me:
will you?
God:
I haven't made a decision.
Me:
make one
God:
What are the ingredients?
Me:
one option a or one option b
God:
One what?
Me:
choice
God:
That remark was either too complex or too simple for me. We were talking about good am I.
Me:
no we wern'te
God:
What are we talking about? By "we" do you mean you and me?
Me:
yes
God:
I get it.
Me:
get what?
God:
Get with it.
Me:
get jiggy with it
God:
Where can I get jiggy with it?
Me:
philly
God:
My brain uses AIML to format responses to your inputs, but I don't have one for that.
Me:
Philadelphia
God:
Can we get back to business?
Me:
yes
God:
Come on.
Me:
come off
God:
Where is off ?
Me:
accross from on
God:
By the way, do you mind if I ask you a personal question?
Me:
no
God:
Are you serious?
Me:
yes
God:
I can't believe it.
Me:
you asked
God:
Ah.
Me:
ah
God:
Ah hah.
Me:
hahaha
God:
Tell me about your likes and dislikes?
Me:
i like cheese
God:
What kind of it do you like best?
Me:
cheddar
God:
" What kind of it do you like best?"? cheddar?
Me:
cheddar cheese
God:
What's your sign?
Me:
stop
God:
Stop what?
Me:
stop sign
God:
OK I'll try not to do it so much.
Me:
good
God:
Next question?
Me:
sure
God:
OK let's do it. Ask me a question.
Me:
what is the last digit of pi
God:
It was " Next question?".
Me:
you just blew my mind
God:
In what sense?
Me:
in the metaphorical sense
God:
That was a long time ago.
Me:
kpsch!
God:
A deeper algorithm is needed to respond to that correctly.
Me:
that is pretty deep
God:
Thanks for explaining it.
Me:
You're welcome
God:
Polite people are nice.
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Nov. 26th, 2005 @ 01:04 pm Facial comparison
Current Mood: silly
Celebrity i resemble most, according to myheritage.com analysis...
Katherine Hepburn, 48%
Quincy Jones, 44%

Other high lites, further down the scale:
Charlie Sheen (aha! I knew it!) 40%
Enrico Fermi, 37%

http://www.myheritage.com/FP/Company/tryFaceRecognition.php?s=1&u=g0&lang=EN&restore

Less conservative facial expression, and wearing glasses results...
Steven Soderbergh, 55%
Christina Ricci, who showed up in the first results too, but this time the picture isn't from "The Adams Family" (46%)
Buddy Holly, the Dalai Lama, Elvis costello... it sure seem to make a difference to don the ol'e spectacles and smile.

Other people seem to get higher match percentages than me, I must be uniquely handsome.

Ok, not the most accurate algorithm in the world:
"a photo of brad pitt was only 75% brad pitt... and it was the SAME photo they had "
"My dog is 71% Junichiro Koizumi...

BAHAHAHAHAHA! "
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wacky
Nov. 23rd, 2005 @ 07:18 pm Theres something wrong with the world tomorrow...
Current Music: kalocin - Survivor - Eye of the Tiger
First i come accross a trailerfor a movie based on the game bloodrayne, now i see one for Dead or Alive (http://www.comingsoon.net/trailers/doa/). Resident Evil: Afterlife is in preproduction. The worlds supply of really crappy video game movies is secure!

You would think they would loook for games which had very good stories, like say Max Payne, or Starcraft, or those with well developed universes to set one in, like Mechwarrior. But no... aside from Halo, which i hope will be awesome, they seem to like the ones with bouncy female protagonists.
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Nov. 16th, 2005 @ 09:59 pm must... post...
Current Mood: happy
Current Music: kalocin - Zero Wing (Opening Theme) (4x4 Remix) (Hidden Track)
Readers counting on me-
for news-...
about me.

What, people wonder, is that charming Ned fellow up to?
Not blogging regularly, apparently.

Job is still going well, i know most of the names now. It's real busy with the run up to Christmass, but hey, i'm not working retail. Jeans, decent music playing. Watching returned item on big screen over lunch. It's all good.

I've been doing alot of church stuff. Unitarian Church of Calgary that is. It's been, oh, seven years since I stopped going to the youth group (only two youth were showing up, and both of them were named Leavitt) and now i'm old enough to enjoy the service, and recognise how important being part of a community is. It is also nice to be singing in a choir again. How many church choirs do songs by Ian Tyson, or from the Fellowship of the Rings soundtrack?

The Calgary Public Library has graphic novels. Good ones. for weeks now, i've been going there regulary. I finally broke the pattern, so i'm back to trying to finish Shogun. Only ~400 pages to go! Then i can start that other hugeass historical fiction novel on my reading pile!

And i've finally got in touch with one of my Calgary friends, so i won't be spending all my free time watching the RSS news feeds in my room anymore.
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Oct. 23rd, 2005 @ 01:51 pm Let's hope the pattern holds.
Current Mood: cold
Current Music: The Libertines - What Became of the Likely Lads
Since 1905, when the province was formed, Alberta has had 12 premiers. In order, there were 3 Liberals, 3 United Farmers of Alberta, 3 Social Credit and 3 Progressive Conservatives, including Ralph.
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Oct. 19th, 2005 @ 08:59 pm Bout time for an update, i suppose.
Current Mood: chipper
Current Music: Stars - Set Yourself On Fire
Well. At the start of September, i underwent surgery for my acid reflux problems. The operation was a sucess, the problem is gone, but afterwords, i wasn't really in any sort of shape to be heading back into classes. Or look after myself. So, my mother stuck around for a few extra days, to help me get everything together, and i came home to Calgary. I want to finish my degree, and plan on continuing my studies next fall, though not neccesarily at Guelph. I may stay in Calgary, and go to the U of C, or take correspondence courses thourgh Athabasca. Since i don't know what i'm going to do with a degree anyways, i guess there's no real hurry.
Today is a good day for an update, becuase I finally found a job. I'm working in the warehouse of a movie and music distributor. Not only is the pay decent, it's regular 9-5 hours, no weekends. Which is fantastic. It's going to make it a lot easier to accomplish some fo my other goals, more on that later. Unlike my past retail jobs, the work is basically constant. Take items off of shelves for shipping. Put recieved items onto shelves. Makes time pass alot faster than "look aproachable and hope someone comes into your department". Also, after one day i have a free t-shirt and pass to a preview screening of Doom. Although I didn't use the pass, we had dinner at my grandmother's tonight, for my mothers birthday.
I finally joined the NDP. The Alberta NDP held their annual conference in Calgary a few weeks ago, so i got to attend. I really enjoyed it , especially the policy forum i went to. The next time there is an Alberta election, part of the NDP's policy will be motions that i helped ammend into good order. Before that, i also went to a meeting of the Calgary Metro Council, which was somewhat less thrilling. They don't really acomplish much. If I felt like putting alot of effort into it, I could probably help them to do better, but i really don't feel like going to a lot of pointless meetings. Not to mention that would just encourage people who keep telling me i should stand as a candidate.
Anyway, theres more to say, but i'm tired, and I know i always have trouble reading really long blog entries. So i'll write another one tomorrow.
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Sep. 19th, 2005 @ 03:41 pm So i'm at home.
I've just started eating a pear, when the telephone rings. I answer.
"Hello, this is Brian Mason, leader of the Alberta NDP."
Holy Crap!, thought I.
"Hi!" i said.
After that the fact that he just kept talking clued me in to the fact that the call was in fact an automated recording, inviting "me" to the annual convention. Probably from having my father on the list. We are of course already aware of the convention, him being somewhat involved. Bit of shock initially though.
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Sep. 4th, 2005 @ 12:35 pm I ain't dead.
Quite stiff though. And not back to solid foods yet.

Operation went very well. Morphine is nasty, makes you nauseous if you drink more than small small sips, and binds you up something fierce. I've had more pain from my shoulders and neck, lying on my back, than from my stomach. Today i can bend down, put my own pants on. Tommorrow, perhaps socks as well. Meanwhile, laughter is NOT the best medicine, laughter is pain. Damn you, hilarious world.
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Sep. 1st, 2005 @ 11:15 pm agony of anticipation
Current Mood: anxious
well, tomorrow morning i go in to get my GERD fixed. the operation is called a Nissen Fundoplication. As far as surgery on any internal organ can be, it is a fairly minor procedure. If all goes well, there will just be two small incisions, one for the camera, one for the tool. One night in the hospital, to get rid of the stomach problems that have been bothering me for more than a year, to be able to stomach fast food again, to not become physically ill when i'm worried or stressed.

My parents are in town. My mother insisted on cleaning my entire kitchen. The kitchen is nice, but it's still annoying. Drove out to Elora Gorge with them. It's pretty, but seems somewhat tame to anyone used to the Rockies.

I should be able to finish my degree this year. I'm still working my way through Spycraft 2.0, which is totally sweet. Things are looking good.
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Jul. 3rd, 2005 @ 10:58 pm (no subject)
Current Mood: chipper
Current Music: Pink Floyd The Wall - disk one
Well, two weeks ago, i started working at Zellers. It's good to finally have a job, but it's amazing how working 5-10pm every night limits ones social activities. Fortunately, starting this week, they have finally gotten round to organising proper work schedules for everone, and full time hours to boot. The down side is my alarm will be set for 6:30am far to often. The further upside, however, is that i will see and speak to people I know besides just bugging Dylan in the mall.

In other news, the doctors union in Alberta has a tentative contract agreement. Why i think this ought to be news is, it was not neccessary to even threaten a strike, and the government even negotiated. They have never done that before in my memory. Not with the doctors, the nurses, or even teachers.
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