It's been so long I just don't know what to say.


I am residing in Waterloo again and the first day of school is tomorrow. I have an 8:30 class that I am not looking forward to waking up for. At least I don't really have to be that presentable it's only a database class, not many women in the class to impress. There is more to say but as always I can't remeber what it is.


Oh yeah, why were they selling tampons in the men's washroom at the bar?

I am not dead, just without Internet access. It will all be fixed soon and I can banter to you once again.

Lesson of the Day: Never count on money you don't have in your hand. I went to go pickup the cheque from the used bookstore for the texts that I sold after last school term. I wish I could say I got the money but I got less than that. I got one of the books back. A book I bought less tha 8 months ago is now extinct and out of date. Anyone looking of for text on Operating Systems. If so, you too can build your own OS. Send inqueries to me.

I'm so sorry. In my haste to share Buffy with the world I neglected to thank Tom for his wonderful Buffy related links. If you would like to one up Tom with your own Buffy goodness all you have to do is send me a picture of Buffy in leather eating cheese. A simple request I think. After all it's some of my favourite things and some of Buffy's favourite things.

Another day of errands. I took my parents minivan in for a lube job, did the groceries and mowed 2 arces of lawn. I also went to the Bank to talk to an actual person. I decided to give up my bank book ways and move on to the monthly statement. The teller agreed with my choice after slightly scolding me for me for not updating my book in over a year.

Apparently today is International Buffy Day. I am not too sure it is legit but hey I can celebrate Buffy anytime. Tonight Spike'r robo-buffy will be unveiled. Should be a funny episode. Here are some buffy quotes to keep you occupied until the main event.

Life at home is always a nice break but after a while I miss being independent. It's not that I depend on other people it's just that when I am home I have to consider other people. You don't make food for one, you make it for the whole family. Also, if I were to go out I would have to say when I would be home. etc, etc, etc...



Little things that I can get over. The big thing I hate is that everyone else is working really hard and I am sitting on my ass feeling guilty that I am not helping. So I help and I get to do all the chores that I hated when I was a kid.

A moment of weakness finds me the owner of a new psa play. This very big impulse buy has several levels of justification behind it.

• First off now that I have it, I will start running again and a lot more. Basically the whole exercise angle.


• Second it is a gift from my brother. (We asked if you bought 2 of them if we could get 10 percent off. The store agreed to it and so we both bought one. I gave him one his birthday and he gave me one for my birthday).


• Thirdly, the coolness facter.

I've always wanted an mp3 player and I intend on getting full use out of it. I need to add another 64 megs of memory. I just need to locate the money for that first.

I threw all my crap into my new place in Waterloo. LIke all places before and like all places after it is totally different than I remembered it. Every place always looks smaller and dirtier when I get there. Oh well, I can do anything for 4 months. Plus it will be good, I am living with Tracy. We both blog so we could be a blogger household. Maybe we could call our place the Blog Pad, everyplace needs a nickname. It won't be as glorious as the Crackhouse name but it'll do and will have everyone confused.

I'm done, I'm free.



After my term review I recieved an outstanding. Not my most deserved outstanding but one none the less. This makes 5 out of 5 and I only have one more work term to go (*brad gives himself a big pat on the back*). I hope this makes it easier to get a job for next fall. It has been a weird term for me and I admit that I didn't have the most positive attitude but none of that matters now because I am done and I got what I wanted. At least everything except that great big bonus.

Woo hoo, the last day of work is always nice. There is not too much to do as you pass on projects to other people. There are a couple of urgent tasks that must be done. All mp3's, personal files, email and programs must be removed from the computers. This can take a while but you wouldn't want that love letter to fall into the wrong hands.



Less than 3 hours to go. I love days like today. I just got back from the many free lunches that you get when you leave a job because everyone wants to say goodbye.



The thing I hate/fear the most is the goodbye phase of the last day. It takes me an hour or so to go and say goodbye to everyone and as I do each person I have to be ready for whatever may come. Hopefully no one will throw a hug my way because I have no idea how to recieve a work hug. So for the record if you don't know me to well, handshake only please.

I am watching Survivor and they are chatting online with loved ones. The thing I don't understand is that the survivors are using an iMac which is obviously an Apple product, they took no steps to cover it up. The loved ones are using Apple laptops but the show decided to cover the Apple logo. Why even bother, there already is an obvious product placement.

I hate moving. Tonight I have to pack up everything so I can move afterwork tomorrow. After doing a quick search on google I found a few tips. I would post them for you but stupid IE won't let me copy and paste right now. I hate IE.

Extreme Stick Death - all the action of the Matrix with the smooth animation of Southpark! Check it out, it'll put a smile on your face.

The man who saved "blogging"? is yet another article on blogging posted by c|net. At frist I was really excited about all the articles that were coming out because it was giving blogging some exposure. Now I am tired of them. I read them hoping to find a glimmer of some new information but there never is. I guess because I am part of the community there is not really anything that these articles can educate me on. I have seen and read everything before, if you haven't you should check out the article though.

A complete and utter work of fiction for you to enjoy. I hope anyone involved in this can take a joke. If not let me know.

Mass Blogger Murder

In a bizarre twist of events today many of the most popular "web bloggers" on the net died. It comes as a tragic loss as the personal expression and exploration medium was finally gaining public acceptance and access through several articles in global publications and a lucrative licensing deal between Trellix Corporation and Blogger.



The accident occurred when so-called web celebrities received mail bombs. Years of scanning for viruses in electronic mail did not prepare victims for the package marked weblog award in their mailboxes. The packages killed all the bloggie award winners in the 2001 web blog awards at fairvue.com.



Currently the blogs of the deceased are being updated by ICANN until it can be determined who is behind the mass murder. ICANN has found a main supsect, Meg Pickard at Not.so.Soft who was nominated for several awards but was awarded nothing. Ever since the incident happened she has been thinking, presumably about the horrible thing she has done. ICANN has released a statement saying that if Miss Pickard apologizes all charges will be dropped and life can resume as normal and all the web bloggers will be resurrected using secret ICANN techniques.



ICANN also encourages anyone with more information to contact meg did it.

High-tech staff hard to find for Waterloo firms. The article states that The University of Waterloo has been one of the prime sources for new high-tech talent, I guess that is good for me if I want to get a job there next fall. It will be so nice not to move ( far ) for once. I am going to be moving back to Waterloo on Friday. What a pain it is. I have moved a grand total of 12 times now in the last 4 years. I need a break from it.

Things are kind of weird in the office this week. Yesterday they started to lay off some people. (There is an article about on News.com, you can check it out here) The mood is a little weird. Some people are nervous and others don’t seem to care at all. I would be nervous too, at first it looked like it was going to be the low performers in the company but then some other people got the boot that we were surprised of. It is looking more and more like a cost cutting measure. I guess all will be revealed tonight when the company announces Q1 earnings.



I knew something was up last week when 3 of the other co-op students were "let go", which was pretty much fired. Which is really strange because they only had a couple more weeks to go. They we either really bad employees or there termination was more politically charged than was let on.

Here is another article on the crappy tire case. The article states that Canadian Tire would have to prove that when Canadians say crappy tire they really mean Canadian Tire. As a Canadian I would say that 9 times out of 10 it is true.


This case seems to run more along the lines of rollerblading in my mind. It's one of those words that people use improperly. Rollerblades are a brand of inline skate but many people refer to the act of inline skating as rollerblading. Maybe on second thought the Canadian Tire case is nothing like that but the Rollerblade thing is interesting too.

Retailer demands intellectual rights to crappytire. com. This article is pretty funny to me. After working there for 5 years when I was in high school I always referred to it as crappy tire and I never meant it in a positive way. It's too funny that Canadian Tire wants to buy the domain so much. I wonder if any other company owns the slang names that they are called.

Erin over at NorthWestern University has reviewed midnight inferno. You can read the review here. Thanks for the compliments and the critism. I will take both to heart to make this site a better place.

Just a thought. Since last Friday was the 13th and it was also Good Friday does that mean Bad == Good or do the two opposites form a neutral day so last Friday was just a Friday? If you aren't supersticious or religious does it mean anything?

This was another tiring weekend with my Mom. I don't think a lot of tihngs went her way. When ever this happens she pulls out all the stops to manipulate us. At least that is how I see it. Here is the order.

1. Guilt: Usually along the lines of "I thought that you would want to spend time with your family", or "this is one of the last times we will all be together"


2. This upsets me so much I can't talk about it: At this point my mother refuses to talk about it and changes the subject because it is just not up for discussion


3. Walk Away: Oh, you have gone to far, now Mom is so upset she can't guilt you or change the subject. Instead she leaves to sulk for a while only to try to manipulate you again in an hour or so.

Is your mother anything like mine?

My brother came home this weekend and as I told you a few months back he got his ear pierced. I was very happy about this because I got a lot of flack from my mother when I had my ear pierced that I wanted to watch as she roared at him over his new hole. Nothing that I wanted to happen happened. There was only a little whimper. Apparently she used all the good stuff on me.

Why don't people pay attention to the little things anymore. Take something as simple as a television commercial. It only lasts for 30 seconds and Fidelity Investments can't even do it right. It starts of with business people walking and talking and then we see a "Wall Street" sign and some more people doing business and then a new set of people walking. The problem is the CN Tower is behind the last set of people. Last time I checked the Tower was still in Toronto, not New York where Wall St. is. I am seeing a continuity problem here. This commerical begs the question, if a commericial is not telling the truth what does that say about the company?

I just love watching the princess bride. It's like "football in the groin" it just works on so many levels. The movie can teach you a few of life's lessons. One is beware of R.O.U.Ss (rodents of unusual size) in the fire swamp. The second which is only slightly less famous is never challenge a sicillian to a death match.

The reason I am so messed up was revealed by my mother today. Me, my mother and my brother are sitting in the kitchen talking about discipline when she points the finger of death at me and says "I knocked you around". Me and my brother both stopped and started laughing. Mom did too, I don't think that it quite what she meant to say.

My weekends at home are never as relaxing as they should be. I have only been home for half a day and I already got into a fight with my mother, more on that later. The only good thing to happen is that after all my worrying (spawned by mother) that I would have to pay a grand in taxes this year it turns out that I get a little bit of a refund. That's a load off cause I had no idea where I was going to get the money from anyway.



Another lesson learned, never listen to your mother.

Yeah, Blogger seems to be happy again. I guess it really is feeling better.



Nothing much has happened lately. I am actually fairly engaged at work today. This hasn't happened in a while. Last night was weird, around 4 am I heard that loudest bout of thunder in my life. It was so loud it woke me out a dead sleep and the rumbled set off car alarms. Is that even possible?

Well, I changed the blog to match the rest of the site. I do like the old design but I felt it was too heavy now that it's not winter anymore. What do you think? Is this better or worse? Let me know via email or the comment box.

Only 6 more work days and I will be free.



My mind left ages ago and I am just pretending that I can form intelligent thoughs. It doesn't really matter though. I think we have all come to this agreement where I am given little work to do and not included in anything. It's their way of including me but not. I just get to finish up the few things that I had and dabble with a few minor projects and then I will be gone.



I will not miss this place. There is nothing to miss except free breakfast on Friday's, the company it was 8 months ago before it was bought out, and some of the people that have made these last 4 months bearable.

Did you have a bike when you were a kid? I always did. It was an extension to my body. Throughout the years I have owned several bikes. I think I started off with a tricycle. At least I assume I did. There is no evidence of this, but it just seems like the natural choice for a 2 or 3 year old. The next bike I remember was a second hand bike from the local bike shop. It had a banana seat and everyone thought that was really cool. Then I grew into my BMX years.



I loved my BMX. All my friends had one and we did cool things to decorate them. Mine had BMX pads that went across the handlebars and on the main body bar (the proper name alludes me right now). The pads were grey and burgundy and had the BMX checker flag on them. We would ride up to an area that had lots of mud and hills to do tricks. Our favourite activity besides hanging out on our bikes was to see who could make the longest skid. You would go down the street to work up some speed, and then smash the pedals backwards to make the longest skid possible on the gravel shoulders. Then when you reached the end you did the required foot down and swing the back tire out to make a swoosh.



My next bike was a mountain bike I think. I bought it with my paper route money that I had saved. After owning it for a month it was stolen out of the driveway. Who steals a bike in our town? It is so safe there that our neighbors didn't even lock their house when they went on vacation. Anyway, when we finally noticed the bike was missing my Dad and I hopped in the massive brown Ford LTD and scoured the neighborhood. Without any luck we called the cops and filed the report and they did nothing.



With the insurance money I stepped up to bike ownership again and bought a Norco bike. The model was Kokanee (just like the beer, not sure which came first though). I still use it now even though it is a little small for me and seen some pretty bad days. This bike got a branch caught in the front wheel and bucked me off like a bronco. The wheels and brakes are stilled messed from the accident and no matter how many times I true the wheels they still aren't straight. The impact of me hitting the ground broke my arm. It didn't hurt too much. At the time I though it was really cool because when I put my arm down and lifted it, it bent in a new third place.



Maybe it's time for a bike. I was thinking that I want to compete in a triathlon. Not that I am ready for it, maybe in a couple of years. I guess I can’t get a new bike until I have a new adventure planned for it.

I am such an idiot. I used blog in the archive file name and now that I moved here I used blog again. Now whenever it archives it replaces my blog. D'oh!

The mathie in me finds this article interesting. The scary thing is about half way through I thought "hey, I know how to prove or disprove an optimal solution to this problem". Damn, CS 341 actually taught me something that I can use.

You know, I have really tried to get my site to look nice in Netscape. I fiddled with the fonts and tried just about everything that I could think of. No more I say, I give up. Netscape can go play by itself and when Netscape is ready to follow the rules and display my site like I want it to, it can be my friend again.

Julie has figured out what that song was today, it was the sweater by meryn cadell. Although I did not know the title, I was correct when I said the last line was '100% acrylic' and I think that counts for something.

Every morning starts with a battle. I don’t quite understand how my body works. It decides that 7's a good time to wake up. I on the other hand think that 7:30-7:45 is a better time to wake so I go back to sleep, but when 7:30 rolls around my body revolts. It refuses to let me get up. The whole ordeal leaves more tired than I was a half-hour ago when I first woke up. Can there be a meeting of body and soul? Can they agree to get up at 7:15 instead?

To figure out the eternal question, is an ear sexy?, I have posted a picture of my own ear to hot or not.com. Go submit your vote now! I'll keep you all updated on the sexiness that is my ear.

Can you OD on VItamin D? Ever since my hours in the sun yesterday I have had a killer headache (no i am not dehydrated). It was so bad I went to bed early last night and missed the end of the movie I had been watching.



I also have a correction. Last Thursday I stated that I had 11 days left of work. It was actually 10. I forgot about the Good Friday holiday. Anyway, after today there will be 8 days left. I can't wait, it'll be great.

well, I messed that up.

After a rainy day of errands and the Eco Challenge on Outdoor Life Network yesterday, today is much different. Now it's sunny and warm. I have worked out in the mud for a while and am back watching the Eco Challenge. I think I am hooked. It's from the same creator as Survivor, Mark Burnett. I think the Eco Challenge is way cooler and would like to participate in it someday. Right after I make it to the Olympics.



The addition of Vitamin D to my body is doing wonders for my mood.

So, there I was on an airplane. We were going to Australia. Everything seemed normal until we were held hostage. I of course came to the rescue with my remote control machine gun. I blasted the kneecaps off of our assailants and thwarted the attempts to kill us. Just after we diffused the bombs that had been attached to the cockpit doors we saw that we were falling to the ground. Thank God for auto-pilot. We managed to land on some major highway.



These crazy dreams have got to stop.

It's been a while since UW has done something right for me. Last fall I was't pre-registered, then they screwed up my marks and now they cancelled a class on me.


They always seem to mess up my classes and stuff but never seem to forget to cash my cheques or charge me tuition. I wonder why that is?

Quote of the day:

"Computer games don't affect kids; I mean if Pac-Man affected us as kids, we'd all be running around in darkened rooms, munching magic pills and listening to repetitive electronic music."

Kristian Wilson, Nintendo, Inc, 1989.

It's funny everytime I read it.

I just went out for a coffee and on my way back I was stuck with a dilemma of sorts. There about 200 feet ahead of me is my boss. She is talking to someone and I don't want to interrupt. The problem is I am rapidly gaining on them even when I try to walk slowly. If I pass them I have to stop and acknowledge them, something I don't really want to do. Another option is to breeze on by, but that is too risky and could have some repercussions. So I did the only thing I could. I went and bought candy to stall. It did the trick and came with a bonus. Candy. What should I have done? (send me a message with the comment box)

To put a little excitment into the elevator ride up to my apartment I decided to turn off the lights. It was a cool ride as the only light came from the overhead numbers and nothing else could be seen. This posed a problem because I was no longer sure which switch was for the lights anymore. What if I hit the alarm instead? So I waited until the doors opened and searched for the switch, flicked it and then stepped out. I scared the crap out of the old lady stepping on. In her version of events the lights came on and a big guy came out of nowhere. Oops.

I just submitted notice for my last day here. It will be Friday April 20th and I can't wait. It's gonna suck because I will no longer have income for 4 months, but I'll survive and I can always cash in on the bank of Mom and Dad, open 24 hours, 7 days a week. (i hate that too, but it's a different story)



This leaves me with 11 work days left to count down as I hide my loathing of this place. The more I think about it the more I realize that part of the reason work sucked this term is the negative aura that surrounds me everyday. All the employees here were part of a merger and each and everyone of them is confused and trying to fight the process. Their attempts for control fail and their tempers raise and in the end it makes the office unbearable for themselves and everyone around them. In the end it is a cancer to my happiness and I need seperate myself from it as soon as possible.

My co-worker looks like he fell right out of the pages of the Great Gatsby. He has the whole pin-striped shirt and white pants thing going on. That may not be true to Gatsby's attire but pretty damn close to what I pictured it to look like.

Not a whole lot going on this week. Dull as usual. Just you wait until I am back in Waterloo, then the good stuff will start to unwind. Anyway I took the opportunity to add a new piece to the 12 o'clock section. Read escape at your leisure (it even rhymes this time).

Stupid corporate email of the day: The vending company's driver had an emergency this morning. He is on his way now to replenish the stock. Oh my, not the vending machine. What will we do if it runs out before they get here?

After further investigation I must admit that Labatt is one smart company. This has got to be one of the best marketing campaigns. I think it will get a load of press coverage (I have already recieved several forwards with the information in it). Labatt will also collect valuable marketing data when people submit personal information to the petition. Very smart, I wonder if they will make commercials and print ads for this campaign.

You have to love the beer up here in Canada. Not only does it have a higher alcohol content and better taste than some other countries, the beer companies are willing to go up to bat for us. Labatt has decided to petition for a new long weekend because Canadians feel like we just don't have enough time. Check out the site and sign the petition.

You listened to what I said and went nuts with the messages. Not really nuts but you had a few things to say. I thought I would share some of them with you.

I liked your blog and you site in its entirety.

I really liked your 'square idea'

will you be MY sex slave

My dearest Brad,
i have never seen a site worse than yours. the colour schemes are all wrong, and your content is worse than a chinese whore.



fix it or get off the net!

The last one caught me a bit off guard but I think it was a prank. Anyway, I am to inform the sender that the "chinese whore" comment is offensive.

Hey all, I made a few updates and rearranged some of the links so I could add some more. A new song for you to download (4th block down). It's god of wine by Third Eye Blind. Here are the lyrics marked with my favourite lines.

Every thought that I repent

There's another chip you haven't spent

And you're cashing them all in

Where do we begin to get clean again

Can we get clean again

I walk home alone with you

And the mood you're born into

Sometimes you let me in

And I take it on the chin

I can't get clean again

I want to know can we get clean again

The God of Wine comes crashing through

The head lights of a car that took you farther

Than you thought you'd ever want to go

We can't get back again

We can't get back again

She takes a drink and then she waits

The alcohol it permeates

And soon the cells give way, and cancels out the day

I can't keep it all together

I know I know I know... I can't keep it all together

And the siren's song that is your madness

Holds a truth I can't erase

All alone on your face

Every glamorous sunrise

Throws the planets out of line

A star sign out of whack, a fraudulent zodiac

And the God of Wine is crouched down in my room

You let me down, I said it, now I'm going down

And you're not even around

And I said no no no...

I can't keep it all together

I know I know I know...

I can't keep it all together

And there's a memory of a window

Looking through I see you

Searching for something I could never give you

And there's someone who understands

You more than I do

A sadness I can't erase

All alone on your face

Extreme Programming, what's next Synchronized Programming? Maybe if we push really hard we can make this into an olympic sport to debut in 2008 (hopefully it will be in toronto so I can compete).

I never learn from my mistakes. Tax season is here once again and I am in the process of doing what I do every year, think back for each term and figure out where the hell I was living, how much it cost and who the landlord was. Not an easy feat. I usually end up fudging it and this year I am close but not exact. I really should learn, but I won't.

My first internet attack, "brad is a meathead". Thanks, I will make it a compliment. You think of me as a meathead and therefore I must be all meat. Hence a piece of meat. piece of meat = sex object. I am very pleased you find me ruggedly handsome and want me as your sex slave.

Sorry Rafi, I didn't hurt myself at all when I punched you. It could have been worse, you could've tried to punch me and hurt yourself instead. That happens a lot when people try to hit me.

It seems lately that no matter what we are looking for it comes in pretty much the same options as everything else, designer or discount. There is nothing that really seems to differentiate a product or another product that fits somewhere in between.



So, faced with the choice of designer or discount people pretty much fit in one camp or the other. I tend to flip between, cheap on some things and extravagant on others. Shoes are one thing that I tend to spend money on since I am in them all day so they need to be comfortable. I bought a pair of sketchers this weekend. This pair I believe. Anyway, I was pretty happy with my purchase and when I got home I noticed something. They had thrown in another pair of laces. Whoa, something I didn’t ask for or expect but boy do I love them. Sketchers totally won me over by giving me something I didn’t know I wanted. Now when my laces break in a year or so I will already have the situation covered. The new laces will be the right size and style to fit the shoe.



So back to the point, companies could make us loyal if they would give us something that adds VALUE to our purchase. Make us feel like we are getting a deal. We need that extra item so we can rationalize our purchases. Help us out here.

As we evolve as people so must our sites. With that I have decided to simplify things by adding contact information, an anonymous contact method and downloads to this page. Feel free to abuse these anyway you wish.

Happy April Fool's Day. I am not really the type to play a trick on someone for the day, so instead I will give you a little story. Two years ago I worked with the "Discloser". The discloser was an interesting person, who earned his name by telling me way too much about his sexual fantasies after only having meeting him a few hours before that. Anyway, he is the type of person that would play a trick and this is what he wanted to do to me. I would have opened a can of whoop-ass had he.



The plan was to wait until I had gone to lunch and have a delivery come for me while I was away. The delivery person would be insistant that he could only give me the package. The disclosurer would then ask for the package on my behave and when the delivery guy refused a struggle would break out and the contents of the bag would fall over the floor. The bag was too contain k-y jelly and gay porn.