So much for that paycheque...
Let me start off by saying - a propos of nothing - that seeing the name of someone one has had a one-night stand with in the newspaper is a bit jarring. Fortunately it was in the Lifestyle section, in an article talking about an office design called hotelling, but still. (I'm just glad I've never worked for a company that did this. Normally I keep far too much crap on my desk to be able to function in that kind of environment.)
Now that that's out of the way... I spent far too much money this weekend.
I've mentioned a few times that my PDA had been mysteriously crashing for no apparent reason lately. It stopped for a few weeks, then started again (I wonder if there's a correlation with the temperature, since I carry it everywhere in my backpack). Since it was about five years old (perhaps older), I decided it was time for a new one. I looked at a few that various friends have, and then went into Future Shop on Saturday... where I ended up deciding on another Palm. It has the advantage, at least, that I don't have to figure out how to convert all of my data from one format to another. Though a few of my games from the old one no longer seem to work on the new one.
It's a Palm TX, wi-fi and Bluetooth enabled, and came with a keyboard as well. Plus it has Word and Excel, and can synch with Outlook (which I never use, as I prefer webmail, but it's nice to have the option, I guess). With the taxes and extended warranty (probably a ripoff, but given the troubles I've had with the current one, if this one starts acting up in four years or less I don't have to worry about the expense), it was about $650. Yikes.
While I was in there, I saw that they were having a sale on laser printers as well. I'd been wanting one of those for a while, as I'm tired of the inkjet clogging up if I don't use it for a couple of weeks. (I don't print often, but when I do, I print a ton.) Again with the taxes and warranty, I got a Samsung laser printer/copier/scanner for about $400. (Before the taxes and warranty, it was about $250.) I just need to figure out how to get it home, now - the store may only be a five-minute walk from my apartment under normal circumstances, but carrying a printer, it would probably be more like half an hour. (And given the troubles I've been having with my bowling injury and subsequent pain in my other arm, probably from overcompensating a few weeks ago when I was taking all the crap from my solarium out to the dumpsters, I'd rather not risk further injury anyway.) I've arranged to borrow a dolly from the Penneys if I can't figure out some other way before next weekend.
So that was Saturday afternoon. In the evening, I went to see Cloverfield with kairi_kiss, Chris & Lee Knight, and a couple of other folks. (I'm blanking on their names right now. :( ) I'm seeing mixed opinions from people, but I enjoyed it. Yeah, I know it was basically The Blair Witch Meets Godzilla, but I was entertained - which is my primary motivation when it comes to watching movies, TV shows or plays. Though that didn't stop me from thinking that the protagonists were stupid. Mind you, the protagonists in any horror film are stupid... otherwise they wouldn't be in the predicament in the first place.
And the Trek trailer? Sweeeeeeeeeet. My little monitor doesn't do it justice. (Okay, that may also be because the version I saw on IESB.net was from a bootleg video.)
Today seemed like a long day. I managed to miss the bus at Finch thanks to some kind of delay on the subway (I couldn't hear the announcement - they were making it upstairs, and not on the platform, just as the southbound train rumbled in), and so I didn't get in until about half an hour later than usual. I still managed to fix a strange bug today, though our client is convinced that the solution is something different. (I can prove beyond a doubt that while his theorized cause may be a problem - I haven't checked yet - the one I found today definitely causes this problem.) It only took me six hours because Visual Studio (I almost typed "Visual Stupido", which is probably more accurate) kept crashing when I was in debug mode, executing the code line-by-line, just before I got to the problem code. Argh.)
I was going to go to Third Monday tonight, but figured it was moot because the Penneys weren't going to be there. (Had they been there, I would have been arranging to borrow their dolly, you see... it all hangs together.) So I came home and had dinner here... or rather, tried to. The damned phone kept ringing while I was eating. (All right, most people don't eat dinner at 10PM, I know...) And since it was my Denvention roommate calling to let me know that he'd booked our room in the Marriott (oh, yes, for those of you not on the SMOFS list who are interested, the hotel booking page became available today), I guess that's actually a good thing.
So now it's 11:30 and I'm only just getting started on the stuff I wanted to get done tonight. Sigh.
Oh, and I got two emails today asking me to work on Programming for Anticipation, in two different areas. Guess they think that being head of Events isn't enough work...
Now that that's out of the way... I spent far too much money this weekend.
I've mentioned a few times that my PDA had been mysteriously crashing for no apparent reason lately. It stopped for a few weeks, then started again (I wonder if there's a correlation with the temperature, since I carry it everywhere in my backpack). Since it was about five years old (perhaps older), I decided it was time for a new one. I looked at a few that various friends have, and then went into Future Shop on Saturday... where I ended up deciding on another Palm. It has the advantage, at least, that I don't have to figure out how to convert all of my data from one format to another. Though a few of my games from the old one no longer seem to work on the new one.
It's a Palm TX, wi-fi and Bluetooth enabled, and came with a keyboard as well. Plus it has Word and Excel, and can synch with Outlook (which I never use, as I prefer webmail, but it's nice to have the option, I guess). With the taxes and extended warranty (probably a ripoff, but given the troubles I've had with the current one, if this one starts acting up in four years or less I don't have to worry about the expense), it was about $650. Yikes.
While I was in there, I saw that they were having a sale on laser printers as well. I'd been wanting one of those for a while, as I'm tired of the inkjet clogging up if I don't use it for a couple of weeks. (I don't print often, but when I do, I print a ton.) Again with the taxes and warranty, I got a Samsung laser printer/copier/scanner for about $400. (Before the taxes and warranty, it was about $250.) I just need to figure out how to get it home, now - the store may only be a five-minute walk from my apartment under normal circumstances, but carrying a printer, it would probably be more like half an hour. (And given the troubles I've been having with my bowling injury and subsequent pain in my other arm, probably from overcompensating a few weeks ago when I was taking all the crap from my solarium out to the dumpsters, I'd rather not risk further injury anyway.) I've arranged to borrow a dolly from the Penneys if I can't figure out some other way before next weekend.
So that was Saturday afternoon. In the evening, I went to see Cloverfield with kairi_kiss, Chris & Lee Knight, and a couple of other folks. (I'm blanking on their names right now. :( ) I'm seeing mixed opinions from people, but I enjoyed it. Yeah, I know it was basically The Blair Witch Meets Godzilla, but I was entertained - which is my primary motivation when it comes to watching movies, TV shows or plays. Though that didn't stop me from thinking that the protagonists were stupid. Mind you, the protagonists in any horror film are stupid... otherwise they wouldn't be in the predicament in the first place.
And the Trek trailer? Sweeeeeeeeeet. My little monitor doesn't do it justice. (Okay, that may also be because the version I saw on IESB.net was from a bootleg video.)
Today seemed like a long day. I managed to miss the bus at Finch thanks to some kind of delay on the subway (I couldn't hear the announcement - they were making it upstairs, and not on the platform, just as the southbound train rumbled in), and so I didn't get in until about half an hour later than usual. I still managed to fix a strange bug today, though our client is convinced that the solution is something different. (I can prove beyond a doubt that while his theorized cause may be a problem - I haven't checked yet - the one I found today definitely causes this problem.) It only took me six hours because Visual Studio (I almost typed "Visual Stupido", which is probably more accurate) kept crashing when I was in debug mode, executing the code line-by-line, just before I got to the problem code. Argh.)
I was going to go to Third Monday tonight, but figured it was moot because the Penneys weren't going to be there. (Had they been there, I would have been arranging to borrow their dolly, you see... it all hangs together.) So I came home and had dinner here... or rather, tried to. The damned phone kept ringing while I was eating. (All right, most people don't eat dinner at 10PM, I know...) And since it was my Denvention roommate calling to let me know that he'd booked our room in the Marriott (oh, yes, for those of you not on the SMOFS list who are interested, the hotel booking page became available today), I guess that's actually a good thing.
So now it's 11:30 and I'm only just getting started on the stuff I wanted to get done tonight. Sigh.
Oh, and I got two emails today asking me to work on Programming for Anticipation, in two different areas. Guess they think that being head of Events isn't enough work...