This Blog Is Just Six Words Long

Saturday Plans

noreply@blogger.com (Greg) — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 16:17:00 +0000

Go look at some condos, have lunch with the folks (both sets), get a new laptop set up for my Dad, go look at countertops to replace our shitty ones.

Gonna be a busy day!

Who is reading this??

noreply@blogger.com (Greg) — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 23:54:00 +0000

I'm delighted that someone is getting some use out of my blog despite the fact that I haven't posted anything new in forever!

Installing Windows 7 x64 on my MacBook

noreply@blogger.com (Greg) — Sat, 19 Feb 2011 05:15:00 +0000

I'm sure many of you will think this is blasphemy, but I like Windows 7 better than OS X. I've been running Win7 x86 on the fella's old 13 inch Blackbook for about half a year now, and it works relatively well. I just got upgraded the RAM, though, and since 32 bit versions of Windows can't access all 4 GB I figured it was time to upgrade the OS.

The Windows installation was smooth, no problems at all. When it came time to install Boot Camp drivers though, I ran into some trouble.

I started off trying to install the Boot Camp drivers that came with the Blackbook, but running Setup.exe just came up with an error: "Bootcamp x64 is unsupported on this model". After some Googling, I found a workaround that allowed me to install the drivers.

The driver installation went... OK. It got most of the way through, until it got to the 'Intel chipset' portion, and then it seemed to freeze up. I waited a good 15 minutes, but it just sat there doing apparently nothing. Checking the processes actually showed three instances of the installer running, taking up 100% of the CPU, but it wasn't going anywhere. I ended two of the three processes, and the last process finished up 'successfully'.

I then tried to install the Boot Camp 3.2 upgrade, but it required 3.0 at a minimum and I had only installed 2.0.

Sooooo, I tried running the Boot Camp installer from the Fella's Snow Leopard CD, using the same workaround above... and it worked like a charm. I then had to install the 3.1 upgrade, and finally 3.2.

Boot Camp is right up to date now and working great!

...and there's Rosie, the robot maid!

noreply@blogger.com (Greg) — Fri, 07 Jan 2011 01:36:00 +0000

Actually, her name is Rosalita after the maid from Goonies. Santa brought us a Roomba for Christmas, and she's keeping our condo spic and span!

My cat Oscar isn't such a big fan, but I told him we can get rid of Rosalita when he starts vacuuming.

University of Calgary Impliments a No-Idle Policy

noreply@blogger.com (Greg) — Sun, 24 Oct 2010 19:44:00 +0000

The U of C is going to be cracking down on all vehicles left idling on campus, which I think is a great idea. There's absolutely no reason to let your car sit idling when the temperature is above -10 C.

I was surprised by the amoutn of CO2 that actually gets released while idling a vehicle. From the article:

The average mid-sized Canadian vehicle emits 2.3 kilograms of greenhouse gases when idling for just 10 minutes.

I'm looking for most of these

noreply@blogger.com (Greg) — Sat, 23 Oct 2010 19:24:00 +0000

Any takers?

Writes of Passage

noreply@blogger.com (Greg) — Mon, 11 Oct 2010 23:02:00 +0000

Gay.com has been doing a project for National Coming Out Day called "Writes of Passage" where they've asked gay celebrities to what they would say if they had the opportunity to write a letter to their younger selves. The timing works out really well, since this is a great compliment to Dan Savage's new and worthy YouTube channel, It Gets Better.

If I was going to write a letter to the younger me, it would look a lot like this:

Dear Greg,

It's 2010 now, and I'm living the life that, right now, you don't believe you'll ever have. I have a job I really enjoy, a solid group of fantastic friends, and the most wonderful man to share my life with. I'm the happiest I've ever been.

You have a long journey ahead of you but soon enough, you'll get here too.

I only have one piece of advice: COME OUT NOW. I have very few regrets in my life, but at the top of the list is waiting so long to come out of the closet to those who are important in my life. And here's the scoop: your family will still love and support you, your friends won't ditch you (and for the few that might, you don't really want them around anyway), and you'll feel a million times better without having to lie to those you love. The girl you're dating will be disappointed that her vision of the future isn't going to pan out, but she deserves to know the truth and you'll both be much happier afterward. And your cat won't care either way. I know it doesn't feel like it now, but being honest with the people in your life will be much easier than you think, and it's the most liberating feeling in the world!

I wish I could impress upon you how important this is, but I suppose everyone comes out when they're good and ready... and it's going to be a while before you feel like you are.

I'll see ya when you get here. :o)

Things I Learned At The Hospital

noreply@blogger.com (Greg) — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 02:44:00 +0000

Well, learned probably isn't the right word, since I already knew a few of these. Perhaps reinforced would be a better word. But I digress:

Knowing what's actually wrong is much better than imagining all the horrible things it could be. I've never really understood people who avoid the doctor because they're scared of what he'll tell them.
The L.A. Times crossword puzzle is harder than the New York Times crossword puzzle. Or at least, it was on August 16, 2010.
No matter how bad things seem, chances are they could be worse. The fella's eye was oozing and gross, but at least we weren't as bad off as crying, puking girl.
I am desperately in love with my boyfriend. Spending 7 hours in various waiting rooms of the hospital while I waited for him to get checked out certainly wasn't fun, but it also didn't feel like I was going out of my way or being inconvenienced; really, I couldn't have been anywhere else. Holding his hand while we waited for the first round of intravenous medication to finish was a high point in a long day.
Edmonton actually does have some hot cops. And they all hang out in the Emergency room at the University Hospital. There's no shortage of hot paramedics either.

This is as far as I could make it in my crossword puzzles without cheating. Not bad, if I do say so myself:

Vancouver Pride 2010

noreply@blogger.com (Greg) — Sun, 01 Aug 2010 19:28:00 +0000

Posted via email from sixwordslong's posterous

ARGRA Rodeo

noreply@blogger.com (Greg) — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 23:37:00 +0000

See and download the full gallery on posterous

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WHAAAA!

noreply@blogger.com (Greg) — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 18:00:00 +0000

Everyone is having a blast at the rodeo, but we're all ready to kill
the guys a couple tents down from us. They were noisy aaaaall night
long. One guy in particular, wwhen he laughs he starts out with
"WHAAAA!" and then breaks into the "haaaahahaha!" part. Put it all
together now, kids:

WHAAAAAhahahaha!

The "WHAAAA" isn't high-pitched, iit's low and it carries. Think
about a goose honking, or a cruise ship blowing its obnoxious annoying
horn.

Anyway, rodeo pics to follow later!

Sent from my iPhone

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A Stark Reminder

noreply@blogger.com (Greg) — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 04:45:00 +0000

I LOVE Edmonton's weather in the summer... long, hot days often followed by thunderstorms in the evening. We're having a fantastic storm right now; while I was sitting out on the deck enjoying it, one giant thunderclap set off the alarms on at least two cars in hearing distance. Here's a pic of the view from the balcony... you can't really tell from the photo, but the sky is a very eerie shade of green/grey:

I did get reminded today to get out there and enjoy it while I can... I saw this billboard while driving around today. Y'know, they're probably right.

Murmel Murmel Murmel

noreply@blogger.com (Greg) — Fri, 28 May 2010 18:04:00 +0000

Murmel Murmel Murmel.

That's the sound my guts are making today.

It's been a rough week, digestively speaking. On Tuesday, I went for wings n' beer with a friend of mine that I hadn't seen since high school. I had a great time catching up over a few pints, and when I went home around 10 PM I was in a great mood. That didn't last too long; I started feeling rumblings in my belly by 11:00, and by the time I went to bed at midnight I knew something was definitely wrong.

The Fella and I both ended up making rushed trips to the bathroom that night. He'd been feeling sick the previous day too, so I think whatever bug it was finally caught up to both of us. We both called in sick on Wednesday to recover.

Yesterday, we were both feeling much better so we decided not to cancel the birthday dinner he'd planned for me at Skinny Legs and Cowgirls, an organic bistro in downtown Edmonton. We started with the Three Cheese Salsa Bake, followed by the Signature Mixed Grill which turned out to be way more food than either of us could ever eat. It was delicious... a bit of rack of lamb, pork ribs, a steak, scalloped potatoes and a mound of fresh seasonal veggies. We worked our way through a pretty good chunk of it, having tiny mouthgasms the whole while. When we decided we had had more than enough of the entree, we still decided to brave the Creme Brulee for dessert.

The whole meal was incredibly delicious, but I think it may have been a little overly ambitious for my recently recovered digestive tract.

Hand dryer or vending machine?

noreply@blogger.com (Greg) — Fri, 21 May 2010 06:15:00 +0000

Push button. Receive bacon. Eat bacon.

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Monday Wrap-Up

noreply@blogger.com (Greg) — Tue, 18 May 2010 05:12:00 +0000

I was on my game at softball practice tonight, especially batting. Balls were actually going in the direction I wanted them to, which never happens. Normally I'm a happy camper with any sort of contact. Despite having a good practice, it was not all fun and games out on the field today. The mosquitoes have arrived in full force, and after basically having none last year, they were incredibly annoying. I've got to remember to pick up some bug spray before our game on Wednesday.

On the way home, I was behind a car with a beagle sticking his nose waaaay out the window and barking at all the cars going the opposite direction. So adorable!

All was not well when I got home... Our Internet connection has been really flakey for the last week or so, and we've been trying to figure out what's causing it. Some troubleshooting basically shows that it's got to be the router we're using, but after buying a new one we aren't having any better luck. I'm borrowing the neighbor's open wireless network to post this post, hehehe.

Adventures in Macdom

noreply@blogger.com (Greg) — Mon, 17 May 2010 01:07:00 +0000

Whew! Almost half a year since my last post... let me just wipe some of the dust off the ol' blog here.

...

There all better! I've been taking Reactine for my allergies all week, so that should keep the coughing down to a minimum.

Anywho, on to the point. I've been using the fella's old Macbook for the last month or so, after being a Windows user for the last 15 years (and an MS-DOS user before that!). I did have some exposure to the old Mac Classic boxes back in high school, but it's pretty much been Windows all the way since then. I've used Mac OS X maybe a handful of times prior to this transition, so it has definitely been a learning experience.

There are definitely some things I really like about OS X, and quite a few things I don't like at all:

The Good

Spotlight. I love Spotlight. It automatically indexes all my files, including names, content and meta data, and does a much better job of it than Windows ever did. Even Windows 7, which has search capabilities far, far beyond any previous version, doesn't come close to Spotlight.
Application installation. All I have to do to install an application is drag the .app file into my Applications folder? Really?? And to uninstall I just delete the .app??? This pretty much blew me away at first, and I'm still incredibly impressed by it now that I'm more used to it. OK, there are still a few preference files and whatnot stored in various places by various programs, but compared to the thousands of registry entries and support files that Windows programs scatter all over the place, this is pretty sweet.
Application / OS cohesiveness. Apple likes to have full control over all aspects of their produces, and it's very evident in a Macbook. First of all, since Apple controls the hardware, there are no driver compatibility issues. As Apple likes to say, everything just works. Second, software designers are given a relatively strict box within which to create their programs. The result is that applications generally work well together, look good, and don't typically cause problems.
Multi-touch trackpad. Two-finger scrolling took a couple days to get used to, but I find myself missing it when I use Windows laptops now.

The Bad

I've never had a laptop that didn't have Home and End keys before, and I'm really missing them. I never realized how much I used them when I'm typing. I'm also missing the forward-delete key.
There are certain things that just don't work the way I expect them to. A lot of this has to do with my learning curve as a former Windows user, but a lot of it is just downright unintuitive, too. For example, using ⌘↑ to execute files from the GUI interface instead of Enter. I know it's Apple's OS and they can design it any way they want, but every other operating system uses Enter to, well, enter commands.
Closing windows does not quit the program. I find this incredibly unintuitive. If I'm done with a window and I close it, it's because I'm done! Why should the program still be running?

The Ugly

This is Apple, silly. Nothing is ugly.

This list is by no means comprehensive... every single day I find myself saying "This is so cool!" about some things and "I can't stand this" about others. I'm sure there will be similar follow-up posts in the not-too-distant future.

Dirtiest Tea Ever

noreply@blogger.com (Greg) — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 19:16:00 +0000

This showed up in our cupboard at work the other day.

Mmmm, vanilla...

Incidentally, this is the first time I'm posting from my iPhone. I'm mobile, bitches!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

UPDATE: After looking at the post from an actual computer monitor, I see that the picture is waaaay too small to read easliy. I'll have to see what I can do about fixing that. If you couldn't squinch your eyes up enough to read it, the label on the tea says "Vanilla Nut Cream". Heh.

It’s beginning to look a lot like… not Christmas!

noreply@blogger.com (Greg) — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 06:35:00 +0000

I walked out the door at work tonight and noticed something: it’s much lighter out than it was at this time even last week.

Yay!!

I’m not a a fan of winter at all. I don’t like the cold, I don’t like snow, and I REALLY don’t like going to work and then coming home from work in the dark.

For some reason…

noreply@blogger.com (Greg) — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 06:03:00 +0000

… Facebook keeps recommending J-Lo as a friend. I don’t have any Lopez-related content on my page as far as I know, so I’m not sure what the deal is here. But it’s the second time she’s popped up.

The 12 Gays of Christmas

noreply@blogger.com (Greg) — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 19:01:00 +0000

Via Joe.My.God.

This totally made my morning!

Making the Bible Biblier

noreply@blogger.com (Greg) — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 22:52:00 +0000

From MSNBC:

Blessed are the conservative in Bible translation
A new online project seeks to purge liberal views from the scriptures

"The project's authors argue that contemporary scholars have inserted liberal views and ahistorical passages into the Bible..."

a·his·tor·i·cal (ā'hĭ-stôr'ĭ-kəl, -stŏr'-)
adj. Unconcerned with or unrelated to history

The irony astounds me.

Best Christmas Cards Ever

noreply@blogger.com (Greg) — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 18:49:00 +0000

Photobucket emailed me today, to let me know that My Pictures Make The Perfect Holiday Gift!!!

The funny part is, the only picture I’ve ever uploaded to Photobucket is my superhero pic from way back when. I think they’re right, Professor Quick-Draw Shooter would really be able to spread the holiday cheer!

Ash-holes

noreply@blogger.com (Greg) — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 05:42:00 +0000

One of my hugest pet peeves is seeing cigarette smokers throw their butts on the ground, which is why I was happy to read today that city council is planning on expanding their program of putting pole-mounted and concrete ashtrays along Edmonton’s busy downtown and Whyte Ave areas. Hopefully, 124th Street, Alberta Avenue, Stony Plain Road and Chinatown/Little Italy will be the next areas to have the ashtrays show up and the butts disappear.

I think the whole concept of tossing butts out on the street is disgusting. Those filters are made from cellulose acetate and take up to 15 years to degrade. I’m sure millions of them end up in the water system every year and eventually find their way to the bottom of the oceans. So gross.

And I hate, hate HATE it when smokers toss their butts out the window of their car. I chew a lot of gum while I drive, but you don’t see me tossing my wrapper out, or spitting my gum onto the street when I’m done chewing it.

The ashtray program is expensive but I totally support that use of our taxes. Lets get those butts off the street and into the trash where they belong!

The Golden Girls: How One TV Show Turned A Generation Of American Boys Into Homosexuals

noreply@blogger.com (Greg) — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 05:00:00 +0000

This is so fantastic, it could have been an article in The Onion.

Will they follow in the lusty steps of their forebears, the Golden Girls? When all these gays are in such close proximity to each other, will we see a huge upsurge in illicit homosexual elderly trysts? Will they vote out Florida’s married Christian Republican leaders, like Governor Charlie Crist?

So Irritating

noreply@blogger.com (Greg) — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 02:54:00 +0000

I hate it when I’m going through my blogs and see a post with a video embedded from an American station. All I want to do is watch John Stewart rip FOX a new one, but I get this instead:

I get that it has to do with who owns the rights to tv show here in Canada, but it’s still goddam annoying!